“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?