Steven Gerrard and his own Financial Fair Play at Ibrox

In our last entry we discussed the major downsizing in budget over this summer, where the last two saw around £12M each being spent before this summer saw only around £4M.

However, January is an interesting window for Rangers because a certain event takes place on Thursday that can secure the club a guaranteed minimum £3.6M with a good result – if Rangers do overcome Legia, group entry to the Europa League is confirmed, and that ensures a base payout, up front, of just under £4M.

That immediately gives Steven Gerrard £4M to play with in January, assuming revenue elsewhere allowed the club to at least break even, make minimal loss, or even make a profit.

Gerrard, it seems to us, is operating under a mini-FFP rule at Ibrox – the Uefa system designed to ensure big clubs only spend what they make through legitimate club operations, and don’t rely on sugar daddies to bankroll endless spending.

This appears to be similar to the system at Ibrox. Gerrard and his Rangers team earned around £4.8M last season in the Europa League (same base sub-£4M plus two draws and a win in the group), and this seems to be roughly the amount Stevie has spent this summer.

It seems the board are letting the team and manager almost self-fund, by way of club earnings through competition prize money. Which isn’t the most inefficient way to operate, in truth. Literally spend what you make. And of course there was the £2.9M for finishing second last season in the SPL. Which would account for one more reasonably big signing this summer, if it was to surface.

Some reading this probably think ‘what a load of guff’, and fair enough. But it’s surely obvious, even to them, that Dave King and the board haven’t just thrown £10M+ at Stevie and the management this summer. That spending has been more considered.

Well, come January, and we’d reckon any UEL prize money may just help a major chunk of spending and if we don’t get a new £3M striker and/or LB now (if needed), we will come the next window.

Time, as it always does, will tell.