This is how much Rangers must spend this summer
Firstly, a belated welcome to Pedro Caixinha. He will be the focus of my point, but I have not had the chance yet to use this site as a forum to welcome him to the club.
I had only known of Pedro previously due to him being linked to the assistant’s job at the end of the 14/15 season with a view to taking over under Vítor Pereira, but we lost heavily in the playoffs and the deal fell through. Almost 2 years later, after laterally lingering in 5th place in the Qatari league the dynamic Portuguese gaffer is in the Ibrox hot seat. I must say, his attitude is very exciting and I think in the long run he will be a refreshing change to the stale Warburton’s loaf that sat in the dugout earlier this season.
Exciting football and experimental tactics are one thing, but winning the league is a totally different ball game. New figures have just been released and they suggest that Celtic’s wage budget is approx. £15m a year more than ours. Our real problem does not, in my opinion, lie with the manager just now. It lies within the accounts of the club.
I am not claiming to be raising an innovative point here, everyone knows we lag miles behind Celtic financially. However, I do not think Pero Caixinha is the calibre of manager who can ignore financial constraints and get us back to competing on a shoe string budget. He needs a substantial kitty to get us in the same stratosphere as competing with Celtic.
It is difficult to quantify exactly how much we would need to spend this summer to be on a par with Celtic, but if you consider that their wage budget is £15m greater and they are superior in every starting 11 position (with the addition of a £4m winger) then I would say that £25m upwards needs spent before we are on a par. And even at that, if we spent that to level with them, they’re capable of pushing the boat out and spending to reassert their dominance.
The point to this? Pedro needs massively backed this summer and the backing needs to be even greater thanks to Warburton’s disastrous transfer dealings during his tenure at Ibrox; there is only so much anyone can do with this squad, and serious financial backing is needed to make Rangers credible at the summit of the SPL again.
Here’s hoping Pedro gets that support.
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