“How could Rangers afford Ryan Kent?” – revealed…

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“How could Rangers afford Ryan Kent?” – revealed…


Rangers yesterday confirmed Ryan Kent on a £7.5M deal for four years, in a deadline day shock which Ibrox Noise confirmed on Sunday was now critical.

It is the most expensive signing in Rangers’ history, aside Tore Andre Flo, and the first question the usual types are asking is ‘where did Rangers get the money?’.

Well, allow us here at your favourite Rangers site to furnish you with the methodology.

First off, Steven Gerrard, just like last summer, and just like the summer before, had around £12M to spend. The difference this summer was in strategy. He spent around £4M on eight players quickly, leaving himself roughly £7M to shell out on one or two big captures. He hoped he wouldn’t have to use it all on Kent.

The budget this summer was exactly the same as before, but Gerrard clearly decided to use it differently this time. And it’s worked out in the plan B scenario he may well have prepared for.

Secondly, and the bigger deal – qualification for the Europa League group stage was beyond critical. Rangers secured £4M getting to the group stage – that paid for half of Ryan Kent alone. But what of the other half you cry?

Well it’s simple – each qualifying round at Ibrox earned the club £2M. That’s right – gate receipts were around £2M for St Joseph’s, Progres, Midtjyland and Legia each – that’s £8M.

Suddenly it doesn’t look so preposterous. Rangers, literally, over the last month, have received £12M in fan revenue at Ibrox. The group prize payment for UEL is up front and paid out as soon as it’s confirmed.

Then we add the RTV broadcasts – unlike domestic matches, these RTV matches were UK-included. RTV have never announced how many sales per match they normally make but globally we’d estimate between 50,000 to 100,000. Add the sudden UK additions for the UEL matches and it likely doubled. So even if we’re conservative, let’s say 100,000 subs for each qualifier not on TV – multiplied by the £10 PPV price (being conservative again as some were in fact £12). Suddenly Rangers just made £1M again through RTV. This happened five times during the qualifiers – £5M.

Hey presto, now Rangers, from dead broke, suddenly have £17M. Over the course of four weeks.

This is how critical European football is. It’s not just the prize fund for each round, or the prize for getting to the group, it’s every other source of income it generates along the way.

It funded Ryan Kent, and Rangers probably still had cash left over.

Not so ridiculous now, right?

NB Ibrox Noise would like to make a slight amend, we’d failed to account for St J, Progres and the Danes being half price tickets compared with Legia. Those legs each generated around £1M each, not two. So the final figure is around £3M lower than our initial calculations. So, £14M rather than £17M. Still, covers it all with room to spare, right?

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13 COMMENTS

  1. IN. You could ask one of the Kerrydale accountants, the whole lot of them think they are experts in Rangers finances.
    That will just give the sweetie wives over at the Eastend something to talk about

  2. Makes a lot of sense. It is so easy to see a figure of £7.5 million and wonder how its going to be paid for but analysis shows what amount of money has been achieved so far with the possibility of more revenue from the Europa games. It is good and cautious accounting

  3. I hope you are right. I agree with your figures.
    My concern would be that your calculations work just as well for last season but we still managed to lose a fair but of money.
    I have no truck with the Kerrydale accountants and am confident that we are not over reaching, but would like a little clarity from the club, or Rangers TV. Until then, I will keep the faith.
    RTID
    ps at least we don't need to keep millions back for compensation claims.

    • SWH, fair comments, but it's not about how much we 'lose' in the accounts, it's how much there is actually available to spend, even if it takes us into loss. Think of credit limits or overdraft – the money is there to spend, and it goes into the red, even if it has to be rebalanced eventually. Even taking into account your idea, it doesn't invalidate the point overall.

  4. A club of Rangers stature should be able to afford 2 or 3 marquee signings. Clearly Money is now in European Matches not domestically ; to compete in Europe need some quality. Take Rangers another couple of years to really challenge – 10 in a row is much over hyped in the East End + not possible for anyone else to challenge while Rangers were in lower leagues. We do need to start Kicking on cannot afford a repeat of Sunday.

  5. NI it's been reported that the fee for Kent was £2m up front and then staggered payments, which is standard practice. This summer we had to make a payment for Murphy because of staggered payments.
    You are saying how much we gate per Europa qualifier, that's total income, you then have to take overheads off. Things like travel cost and player bonuses. Depending on where your team is going in the away leg you can end up losing money in the early qualifiers. Aberdeen we complaining about that a few years back.
    What I can't get my head around is why wait until deadline day, could of got him last week, 2 weeks ago and had him for the old firm

    • 3 weeks ago they were still looking for around 12m.
      Why pay that when U can wait and pay 7m.
      Rangers agreed the 7m with Liverpool on the Saturday to stop Ryan flying out to Brussels.
      Just the way it all unfolded!

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