As alluded to in a previous entry, Rangers may well, if circumstances are incredibly kind and the stars align, make the league phase automatically of the Champions League. We need to win the Scottish Premiership this season and hope that indeed Olympiacos do not win the Greece Super League. Rangers Champions League is possible.
The £60M Champions League incentive
However, the big upshot of this is the budget it will give Danny Rohl in the summer for an assault on next season. As we have explained, winning that place in the Champions League league phase is worth around £60M to Rangers. It is not worth around about that much to Celtic or indeed Hearts. Of course, they will not get that automatic group spot. It is for Rangers and Rangers alone. Celtic or Hearts would be in the qualifiers.
This is to do with the coefficient and the way that it affects club-specific and not the country. So Rangers would be the side that would get the auto group spot. But nevertheless, the £60M jackpot, which we have explained in previous entries how it breaks down, would budget Danny Rohl massively for this summer.
Share issue and financial structure
There is not just that to benefit. Chairman Andrew Cavenagh has also, of course, announced that new share issue, designed to raise £16M for player investment. This is because the owners cannot keep on pumping cash in, otherwise falling foul of FFP and sanctions. It is just not legal in football, even if they want to. They have already put in, according to their own statement, £36M. For us, that does not quite add up, and we believe it is actually more, but nevertheless, that is still a hefty number over two windows.
However, Rangers need to invest even more than that in the summer. How much do Rangers need to spend this summer? Well, it is safe to say that while it is not a blank checkbook, it will be a vast improvement on previous seasons.
Summer budget and recruitment vision
Simply put, with the £60M potential budget of the Champions League being secured, which of course it has not been yet, Rangers would also be adding the £16M if achieved through the share issue. There is then, of course, the personal investment from the owners, which basically makes a grand potential total of unknown £. AKA, Danny Rohl is clearly going to be completely backed this summer to sign the players that he wants.
He was, of course, completely backed in January, and it has been a mixed bag of results in there, aided and abetted, of course, by technical director Dan Purdy. He is in charge of recruitment. Consequently, the players who have arrived are now a combination of Rohl, Russell Martin, Purdy, and outgone Kevin Thelwell. As for this summer, it is purely going to be Purdy and Rohl’s work. All the players who will come in will be their vision.
Rumours
Ryan Naderi, of course, was very, very vividly a Rohl addition. And we have heard word of Pierre Charles from Sheffield Wednesday, which does not exactly fill us with a lot of joy. But the budget, well, it would be guesswork at this point, but we could definitely feasibly suggest that Rohl could have a budget of up to £40M. This would be an unheard of amount, and of course, completely and totally safe, unlike in the past when Rangers spent money that technically we did not really have. We had to use, of course, EBTs to fund the majority of all the signings.
Nowadays, it is a bit different. The owners cannot spend it, otherwise falling foul of FFP, and will only spend what remains accurate within the legislation. That is where the Champions League cash and the share issue comes in. These are so important, and will help to fund a really significant summer splurge. Something that Celtic do not seem to be willing to do anymore. They do not have as strong a squad as they previously did, and if all the stars do align and everything comes into play, Rangers could have a very, very strong summer window indeed, while Celtic would not. Consequently, how much will Rohl spend? The sky could be the limit especially with Rangers Champions League.