Rangers are being linked with a lot of players in the press at present, with Leipzig’s DM Eric Martel, Zulte Waragem’s Abdoulaye Sissako and Reading’s John Swift recently mentioned.

These aren’t seismic names by any stretch, but then equally being linked to those doesn’t guarantee too much. Look at Aaron Ramsey and, to a lesser extent, Amad Diallo.

The reality is, at present, Rangers aren’t really sure what market they’ll be shopping in come the summer.

While the chances of a CL slot are there, they’re conjecture. They depend on 3 outcomes:

1: Winning the UEL. Sorted, done, secured.
2: Winning 56. As long as Villarreal don’t win the CL, that one is also assured.
3: Qualifying for CL by way of qualifiers, 3 rounds of them.

Get CL and suddenly the budget is club-changing. It is that big a deal.

But if we don’t, we’re stuck likely in the UEL for another season with the modest finance it generates by comparison.

It’s still not bad – we’ve earned so far around £12M in prize money alone for getting to the semis, and the extra gate receipts turns that into around £20M. So it’s definitely decent.

But the CL is a different planet – the numbers are, in prize money alone, a minimum of 3x bigger, with, for example, a win in the group stage earning £3M compared with the £500,000 in the UEL. 6x higher.

But just getting to the CL alone – if you combine gate receipts for qualifying rounds, prize money, TV share… dependent on Celtic getting there too (unless Villarreal do win the CL), Rangers could secure up to £40M just for purely getting to the group. After that it’s beyond filthy lucre.

But… our point is the board and Gio don’t know what it’s to be. The crazy money in the CL, or the modest sums in the UEL. The transfer targets depend on it. And we just don’t know.

At present, the last accounts were grim – a £24M deficit. The sales of Gerrard and Patterson cut that by £20M so the next accounts will be better.

But we currently have little cash and it’s why we’re being linked, really, to nobodies at present.

Gio knew the situation when he joined, so his eyes were and are open.

The only way to ‘guarantee’ funds in the transfer market is with sales. So he’s aware of that too.

He’s worked miracles in Europe and even got us to a cup final on his first attempt, but he’ll hope we can pull CL out of the hat this summer.

Because some 19-year old from Leipzig on loan in Austria is the market we’re presently having to deal in.

Well, the press would tell you that. The real market is the unknown. Which is probably why randoms are popping up that are 99% fiction.

Agents do love the Rangers.