Since winning title 55 in 2021, Rangers have lagged behind Celtic on the field.
Additionally, there is a popular perception that they haven’t been able to financially compete with the other side of the city, which has caused them to regain their dominance when Steven Gerrard’s team briefly endangered it.
Every year, Celtic releases some eye-watering financial reports that would make most Scottish clubs blush. They are in good financial standing. They broke their record by spending £11 million to get Arne Engels during the most recent transfer window, and they also lavished money on other players.
Although the Gers haven’t been able to match that, is the story of poverty accurate?
David Martindale and Andy Halliday on Rangers’ transfer expenditures
David Martindale, the manager of Livingston, would undoubtedly challenge the story. He is unsure whether there have been the financial difficulties some have stated, given that £17 million was spent in the summer (including the amount that will eventually be paid for Oscar Cortes).
“£17m this summer,” he remarked on Open Goal.I will add that, if you had £17 million to spend, there might not be as much of an issue upstairs as some people are implying. We would stay in the league for 17 years with £17 million.
Andy Halliday, a former Gers midfielder, contributed his thoughts and focused on the spending during the previous six transfer windows.
He also points out that trading players does not yield a sufficient return on investment, which could have been used to bolster the team.
“I think I read £45million in the last five or six windows,” he remarked in response to Martindale. The only problem is that they have most likely only made around £19 million out of that £45 million. This indicates that you are not obtaining the sell-on value for the ones they are signing, nor are you improving them in order to sell them.
There is more than one person at fault. The stadium situation and the club’s lack of a director or CEO are both poor.
Spending on Rangers transfers since 2022
Halliday was quite near to his figure. Rangers have spent £42.63 million on transfers over the last six windows, which excludes the Cortes money. That includes £16.55 million in 2022–2023; £14.5 million in 2023–2024; and £11.58 million this year.
And when the £42.63 million was spent? Rangers had one League Cup victory.
Martindale’s remarks that there hasn’t exactly been no money to spend raise the possibility of a debate over whether Rangers should have used it more prudently and been able to challenge more.
Ben Davies, Antonio Colak, Todd Cantwell, Sam Lammers, and Jose Cifuentes have all cost £11.3 million during that time, although none of them are currently available to Philippe Clement after leaving on loan or permanently.
While Danilo, whose continued injury issues have prevented him from getting a run of games, was splashed with £6 million.