The Daily Record has dug up Hugh Burns in a desperate effort to pile pressure on the Ibrox board to sack Phil Clement.
For the second time in four months the Glasgow based publisher has launched a LIVE BLOG! In the hope that the Belgian Beale will to be removed from his job.
Having signed a renewed contract at the end of July Clement isn’t about to walk away from an income stream that will keep on running until May 2028 unless the club goes into administration.
Straight after the defeat from Queens Park the fan media reporters were questioning Clement about resigning- not realising that very few people walk away from contracts guaranteeing anything between £6-8m.
Just like Cyriel Dessers, Jack Butland, Rabbi Matondo and Jose Cifuentes- the Ibrox boss will be sitting tight banking his wages every month until their deals expire.
These folk aren’t in Scotland for the weather, golf and banter, only one thing matters to professionals, they are all getting more money than is on offer anywhere else.
Money is flowing out of Ibrox in every direction. In the summer of 2023 Micky Beale committed £15m to signing Dessers, Danilo and Sam Lammers with at least the same amount again required in signing on fees, wages and bonuses.
Losses of £17.2m for season 23/24 barely rated a mention in legacy media, that is close to £1.5m a month. Losses for this season were expected to increase, after defeat to Queens Park that is a certainty. Defeat from Dinamo Kiev in the Champions League Third Round meant a £5m drop on income from last year.
With legacy media in denial loyal bears are under the belief that 46,000 season tickets paying an average of £600 each covers the running costs, wages and transfer war-chests for every window! Maintaining Ibrox and Murray Park doesn’t come cheaply.
Season Ticket money barely pays for half the wage bill but picking up on Burns speaking to a podcast the Daily Record (18.43) reports the former Rangers and Hearts defender saying:
We sit here the morning after the debacle, the embarrassment, the humiliation – I think are the words I might use – of yesterday’s result in the Scottish Cup. What’s happening at Rangers is a million-dollar question. Who’s leading the club? Who’s in charge of the club? Who’s putting money into the club?
We’re taking the punters’ money every week. Season books through the roof, hospitality through the roof, everything regarding the club is – according to them – off the field, going okay.
But it isn’t what happens off the field, it’s what happens on it, every Saturday, three o’clock on a Sunday, whatever time the game is, money off Sky, money, this, that, that.
Where is all the money? Who’s there to answer these big questions? We don’t have anybody at the helm, we don’t have a chairman – we do now, but they’ve brought in someone that nobody knows.
We’ve got a manager – allegedly, we don’t have enough money in the bank to pay him off. That’s the word in the street, but nobody comes out and tells us anything.
I think there have been things said behind the scenes that it doesn’t matter how this season is going, you’re not going to get sacked. The run in Europe is certainly going to save Clement a wee bit, but I think what’s happening right now is an absolute disgrace.
That sort of thinking is a product of coverage in legacy media where the only issue that matters is how to stop Celtic. Burns and others fall for it all the time as they compare their shambles with the successes of Celtic.
With the hoops winning their 119th trophy in December and poised to win #title55 in the spring the desperation and demands will only increase.
Perhaps if the Record explained that Celtic’s bigger stadium generates more money in line with the higher commercial deals from a bigger support and a more advanced Player Trading Model expectations might be more realistic. Even Burns should be able to grasp those basics.
Instead they run tales like Chelsea preparing a £30m bid for Jefte when everyone outside of the Ibrox bubble know that there isn’t the faintest interest in a guy that was playing in Cyprus a year ago.
After a scoring burst covering half a dozen games Hamza Igamane is back to his bull in a China Shop routine. The similarities with Alfredo Morelos are stark although this time the Moroccan Messi hasn’t been given a new contract.
The LIVE BLOG will run all week with nothing happening, maybe someone at the Record might decide to share the brutal truth with their declining Army of Readers.
RELATED READING
