If there’s one thing Ibrox Noise hasn’t yet touched on, it’s the fact the club just banked Ivor Pandur for £3M.
While the records all say the Croat stopper was a £6M signing, and he was, well, thanks to FFP and Hull City’s budget, they HAD to spend £3M on Jack Butland.
Profit
Pure net, Rangers made £3M profit on Butland him having been a free in 2023.
That isn’t half bad for a 33-year-old goalkeeper with a market value of barely £1M.
Meanwhile that cash went straight onto Pandur meaning he cost a net of £3M, not £6M.
Of course that’s not what the accounts will say. Pandur was first, and was sold for a clean £6M to Rangers so Hull could comply with FFP. Then Rangers sold Butland back south for £3M.
But in reality, Rangers shipped out a keeper who had probably run his Rangers race, while getting a keeper worth around £5M for £3M. Yes, there’s been some dodgy sites claiming Pandur is a £10M keeper, but we see no evidence that he was ever worth that.
Dead Wood
So in the end, Rangers shed some dead wood (slightly unfair maybe) and bring in a younger model who many have high hopes for.
Ibrox Noise is a little more cautious about Pandur. He isn’t a Premier League stopper, because he’s never played at that level. And yes, he was a big part of Hull’s promotion. But he only amassed 11 shut-outs in 45 at that level and that’s not exactly vintage. He conceded 65 in 45.
It was his performances in the playoffs which got the attention. He managed 3 clean sheets in all 3 matches and that got Hull promoted.
Then they sold him.
He got the world cup call but is very unlikely to play unless there’s an injury to both of the stoppers ahead of him.
And we will see in time how well suited to Rangers he is.
But what does matter is we got £3M for Butland who really didn’t have a market value at all.
And got this younger lad for a net £3M as well.
Decent business.