Why Gio can spend ‘big’ again for Rangers

Ever since Steven Gerrard took over, the Liverpudlian manager had had around £10M+ to spend each summer window on new players.

From 2018 all the way through to 2020, he spent around £10M on new signings, with each summer seeing some big cheques being meted on the likes of Ryan Kent, Filip Helander, Connor Goldson and Kemar Roofe. Indeed, those four alone cost the lion’s share of what Gerrard spent, around £20M or so.

But in 2021 it stopped. There were no more expensive signings and Gerrard bemoaned it after the side’s painful exit to Malmö in the CL.

But why did it stop?

Put simply, every summer, the cash being spent on signings was for the most part investor and director-funded.

After overheads had been accounted for, as much of investor and director cash as possible was being used to sign players, as long as it stayed within FFP rules. Not that those rules are really designed to affect clubs like Rangers, but the big spenders like PSG and City.

Last summer? After the huge deficit was revealed (£24M) the cash just wasn’t there any more – it wasn’t a sustainable model and it wasn’t any longer living within Rangers’ means.

Dave King was right to say the club had to live within its means, but a huge shortfall in the accounts meant that the club HAD to earn again, something it wasn’t doing enough of, hence previously relying on suits with cheques.

That just doesn’t work long term, and it explains why the cash dried up last summer. In fact, it dried up even earlier, the summer of 2020 being the final time the money men were throwing cash in.

Since summer two years ago we’ve spent next to nothing, and it only highlights two things even more:

The miracles Gio has pulled off getting to the UEL final and winning the cup on absolutely no money.

And the fact that achieving that secured a GIGANTIC injection of cash, something up to about £30M for that Seville final.

We also sold Patterson and Gerrard for around £21M combined which massively helped with being in the red, and as such income since our last manager left has been infinitely higher than previous.

The next accounts should read far, far better, and Gio should have cash to spend this summer.

How much depends on so many factors, but we should at last see some serious spending finally following 24 months of necessarily frugality.

About time.