As is being widely-reported, it is being claimed that Rangers are to make impending acquisition Danilo close to the highest-paid player in the club’s history at around £40,000, which probably rather explains why he’s so eager to come here!
Reports from Holland, various sources indeed, allege the lad will be upwards of £38,000, or €45,000 pw making him higher-paid than almost any player even from 9IAR or the Advocaat years.
To temper this, it is claimed Connor Goldson is already close to being at that level at £35,000 which is far from value for money to say the least in that case, so that puts some context to Danilo’s alleged wage.
But we must admit this is what you have to pay for the best players – if Rangers want a high-quality striker from a champion Feyenoord side who was a first-pick for the Dutch giants last season, they’re not going to get him with chocolate kisses.
You have to pay real money for this stuff, and real money is around £6M and a massive weekly wage.
Can the club afford it?
Yes, we have had a tonne of revenue the past 18 months, and that still stands – despite the fact we don’t have a war chest of £30M+ to spend this summer, nevertheless the revenue streams at Ibrox are strong again and can support some significant wages this summer.
End of the day, you don’t win 56 if Lawrence Shankland is your star striker. We love the guy, and would like him at the club, but as we said before, that’s squad level, and no more.
To actually win things, to aspire to where Rangers need to be, you need better than Shankland and indeed Champions League failure Alfredo Morelos, and instead a top class champion like Danilo who at 24 already has a title.
Now there’s a caveat – he was a bit mediocre in the Europa League. Just 2 goals in 10 appearances, 6 starts. But Michael Beale clearly believes the lad is ready for Rangers and the Champions League.
£40,000 a week would hint at how ready Beale believes he is…