The true nature of Ianis Hagi’s loan away from Rangers has painted a poper picture of why Michael Beale first put him out on loan in the first place to Deportivo, and why Philippe Clement has no interest in using him since then:
A contractual wage increase, as reported by Sky Sports.
It turns out part of the original agreement of Hagi’s permanent exit from Genk to Rangers in 2020 was that once Hagi hit 100 appearances, his wage would increase from the current £22,000pw to potentially closer to £30,000, or even more.
He is currently on 99 and has been completely frozen out since Beale shipped him over to Alaves, and it is not considered that his performances at either Rangers or in Spain have justified the potential for that increase.
Beale shipped him out for that reason – he didn’t believe Hagi was worth potentially £30,000pw, and with Rangers desperately trying to trim the wage bill, that single extra appearance will add a further £10,000 or so on top of what is already one of Rangers’ better earners.
This means that Hagi is completely stuck at Ibrox until an offer comes in, because Rangers have no interest in activating his wage increase, given the level he is at.
All those years ago we recall praising Ross Wilson for securing this ‘talent’ for just an initial £1M, rather than the full £3M, but of course, this is how most transfers are paid – annually.
In fact the guy, like he did with Rabbi Matondo and Ben Davies, actually put Rangers further in the brown stuff by denying us a squad option, when he and Rangers inexplicably gave Hagi a preposterous 2 and a half-year extension in December 2022 taking him to summer 2026 and included this ridiculous wage increase in there too.
Hagi was long-term injured at the time.
Ross Wilson really does have a lot to answer for, and a lot of the financial weaknesses of our club are down to some of his utterly ludicrous deals.
He was so bad that even Michael Beale actually tried to protect the club from it, because he might have wanted to use Hagi.
Que sera, yet another reason we’re glad Wilson is gone, but now we know a major reason why Rangers ain’t using Hagi.