The fallout from Rangers manager Philippe Clement’s revelation last night is going to have a seismic effect on the club, the fans and the transfer window.
It wasn’t so much the confession that we have no money, and must sell before we can buy – outlets like Ibrox Noise have been reporting that for weeks, so it was no surprise, even if we raised our eyebrow at it being confirmed as official.
No, the real doozy was the inferring that the manager had been mislead in October when he took the job, with his admission that he had different expectations when he took over.
We can’t pin this on former CEO James Bisgrove – Clement would have spoken to all the people at the club that matter, including Bisgrove, and he would have especially have spoken to James Taylor, Chief Financial Officer.
And we can only assume the money and that side of it wasn’t exactly accurately presented by Taylor and co, because it’s clear now that Rangers have no cash.
And it’s even more clear Clement wouldn’t have taken the job without financial assurances, which we seem to now be learning weren’t true.
It’s exactly the same stuff ex-manager Steven Gerrard said, albeit delivered differently – his quotes post-Malmo were stating clearly that he can’t win at that level without money, and of course that summer was the Bosman summer of Lundstram, Sakala etc.
Some fans have tried to defend that none-spending saying it was post-covid and we didn’t have the cash, but ‘them’ lot over there spent £25M that summer and they were under similar financial constraints caused by the pandemic.
The fact is we’ve seen this movie before, Gerrard then Giovanni van Bronckhorst saying the same stuff – Gio said the same after Champions League failure, that we can’t compete without cash.
And Beale didn’t have that excuse, he did spend big money, £22M to be exact, he was just out of his depth.
But either way, it’s a chronically depressing thing for the manager to reveal, and while some think he’s trying to pressure the board into stumping money up, well, we’re not sure.
Because if we suddenly start spending cash, suspicions will be raised about where it came from.
It’s a pretty awful preseason if we’re honest. From bad to worse.