Unexpected millions on offer as Rangers reach Seville
GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - MAY 05: Giovanni van Bronckhorst, Manager of Rangers celebrates after victory in the UEFA Europa League Semi Final Leg Two match between Rangers and RB Leipzig at Ibrox Stadium on May 05, 2022 in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
We don’t think we can overstate how much everything has now changed for Rangers.
We’ve gone over and over the permutations for winning the Europa League, and the doors that opens, the lucrative, Champions League-coloured doors, but there’s many more prizes for the winner of the UEL.
We’ve gone on and on about those carrots at the end of all this, but something has already been confirmed, and the news on Ryan Kent this morning only emphasised it greatly.
Simply by getting to the third-biggest club match on earth (only the CL final and el-clasico are bigger), Rangers’ player value has suddenly skyrocketed.
That Barcelona are looking at Kent as a possibility if they don’t secure Leeds’ Raphinha, shows what market we are now evolving into as those huge doors creak open and we finally secure the Promised Land of evolution Rangers have been aching for.
Does it mean selling all our crown jewels? Not necessarily – but it means Rangers’ top assets just became serious heavyweights in market value.
True, there’s the whole contract issue – Aribo, Kent and Morelos are all out of contract in 2023 and the club is working on trying to extend those, so that does come into play when it pertains to what we could sell for if they decided to move on.
But just by getting to this showpiece occasion, Rangers players will skyrocket in value.
Look at Carlos Cuellar – until Nathan Patterson, his sale following the UEFA Cup final in Manchester was still Rangers’ biggest-ever sale at around £9.5M to Villa.
Had we not got to that final, we’d not have earned that for him.
And as things stands, in this new transfer market world, where a fringe player like Patterson can sell for £16M, the event of getting to the UEL final is now, at base level, massive for player value.
Of course, it’s not about selling these players – ideally you want to hold onto your best assets.
But every player has a price.
It’s just that getting to the UEL means that’s gone up massively.
We can’t overstate the impact of Thursday night.