Recently Ibrox Noise ran a piece on our recent high-profile sales/exits and how next-to-none of them have come close to doing well.

That the Aribos, Basseys, Kents, Morelos and Pattersons of this world just hadn’t lit the football world up, and that amusingly the ones doing well were the unwanted ones. The Katics and Ittens.

However, a fair few fans offered the predictable response, that of ‘who cares, they’re gone ffs, move on’ and/or ‘what does it matter, we got the money they’re gone’.

Well, both of these are symptomatic of the insular thinking from some supporters who can’t see the bigger picture, or the importance of issues outside of Rangers. And how they affect us.

And what is the issue?

If our players are tanking after we sell them for big money to big teams in England or Europe, it means future clubs will be extremely hesitant to come anywhere near us for players.

Which some might say ‘yay, we keep our best players, great’, but again, that’s insular. Rangers have a trading model, one which has, admittedly, failed horribly the past few years.

It is important to our club to have a few asset players at any given time that can be sold for big big profit – Calvin Bassey was a good example, ditto Patterson. But this can only be sustained if these players sold thrive at their next clubs.

Rangers’ revenue model heavily relies on player sales – we absolutely collapsed financially up until the Steven Gerrard then Nathan Patterson era of sales where we started to make some big cash at last from our assets.

We are, fundamentally, a selling club, whose income massively needs that large injection a player exit generates. Few clubs in the world don’t have this model – the giants at the top of the Premier League, Barca and Real, and some other top sides in some top five leagues.

These don’t need player sales which is why it’s rare to see a top 6 side in England sell a prize asset, and when they do, it’s for crazy money.

But Rangers are not one of these goliaths, and we need a £10M here and a £20M there to keep the numbers in the black.

And they won’t keep happening without good performances from our departed players.

Is there any coincidence this summer saw the highest sales being Fashion Sakala and Glen Kamara, both for around £4M each? No big sales this summer, because our last commodities all bombed outwith our club.

That Sakala is doing well in Saudi and Kamara is likewise at Leeds is better, but the standard isn’t terribly high in either of these, not like it is in a top five league, or Holland etc.

But sadly Bassey et al bombing last season meant our top players weren’t lucrative this summer. And why we’re not rolling in it this time around.

That’s why it matters.