The Rangers board are facing yet more scrutiny from supporters after the club revealed an operating loss of £17.2million in the most recent financial year.
The Glasgow giants have published their annual accounts and accompanying financial statement and that deficit makes for bad reading, despite the club also saying they have recorded record figures in core revenue of £88.3m. But operating costs at Ibrox remain as high as £110m, with staff costs accounting for £61m of that total figure.
So when you factor in the £20million-plus the club received for Calvin Bassey, as well as the fees for the likes of Joe Aribo, a run to the Europa League Final plus participation in the Champions League groups, some punters are asking just where has all that money gone.
Record Sport’sexpert pair of Scott McDermott and Scott Burns joined Daniel Caw on the latest edition of Hotline Live to dissect the reasons behind the alarming figures, and the key point of the discussion revolved around Rangers failure in their player trading model. The Light Blues invested heavily in their squad after reaching the final of the Europa Leaguein 2022, only to sack manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst six months later in the wake of a poor start to the Premiership season and off the back of some dismal results in the group stages of the Champions League.
And Scott Burns reckons Tuesday’s report is a reflection of that heavy spending policy and huge turnover of players in the squad. He said: “They have obviously brought in a lot of players on big money, in terms of what Rangers spend. After the European run they invested heavily and put the wages up significantly, and now they can no longer afford to run at those levels. That’s why Philippe Clement has had to get rid of a number of players to free up the wage bill to sign his own players.
“They let a number of players walk out the door last summer and Rangers are still paying a significant chunk of their big wages just to get rid of them. The other issue you have got is that you have had a change of manager. Every manager who comes in brings in their own players.
“Michael Beale brought in several players as he thought he was there for the long term. A lot of them have been wiped out and now Clement is doing the same. You can’t keep changing the managers and changing the squads as that financially can leave a massive hole.”
Scott McDermott also pointed out that the club are also feeling the effects of having to pay up the remaining contracts of previous managers Beale and van Bronckhorst after both coaches at Ibrox were given the boot after less than 12 months in the job. He added: “They are also still paying the previous two managers which is going to hit them in the pocket.
“A few years ago they looked like they were starting to get the player trading model right in terms of Calvin Bassey, Nathan Patterson, Joe Aribo and Glen Kamara. There has been money coming in but that seems to have stopped and the reason that has happened is because of poor recruitment. You think of the money that Gio (van Bronckhorst) and Michael Beale spent on players who will or have not get Rangers any money back.
“They are at the start of a new cycle now. Guys like Jefte and Hamza Igamane could make a profit but you are talking two or three years away. Rangers need to be competing for trophies now and is what fans are struggling to get their head around how they have ended up in this position.”