Philippe Clement told Rangers could require 12 summer signings after Old Firm loss v Celtic
Rangers manager Philippe Clement could need to buy 12 players during the summer transfer window at Ibrox, according to Roger Hannah.
The Light Blues have all but ended their push for the Premiership title this season following their 2-1 Old Firm derby defeat to Celtic on Saturday (11 May) with attention already turning to the summer transfer window.
Several players are expected to leave Ibrox come the end of the season, with John Lundstram and Borna Barisic already reportedly agreeing to join Trabzonspor, and Scottish Sun journalist Hannah thinks it could be an expensive summer.
Speaking on Clyde 1 Superscoreboard (13 May) he said: “The Rangers side of it, Philippe Clement does need reinforcements and many of them for various reasons. Loan signings will go back and guys out of contract won’t be kept on.
“There will be others who will be sold, you could be looking at Rangers requiring 10 or 12 incoming players this summer.
“The manager needs to be bankrolled, the question will not be how much money the Rangers board are willing to give Philippe Clement, how much money does the Rangers board actually have to give to Philippe Clement.”
Will Rangers and Philippe Clement spend big money at Ibrox in the summer transfer window?
It is widely accepted by supporters at Ibrox this summer that there could be plenty of change come the end of the season, but it remains to be seen whether or not the Belgian will be given the money to make those additions.
With the Light Blues set to miss out on Champions League football, they won’t be handed the same financial bonus their Old Firm rivals will have access to. Without that, it’s hard to see them forking out the money to buy that many top-class players.
There are always ways to navigate those issues and getting the likes of Lundstram and Barsic’s wages off of the monthly bill will be a step in the right direction, but it won’t be the be-all and end-all.
We saw this Gers side take a month to adapt to Michael Beale at the start of last season because of the sheer amount of signings made.
The Gers cannot repeat that mistake again this summer, otherwise Celtic will already have the advantage in the title race.
In other Rangers news, Chris Sutton has responded to one supporter’s suggestion Derek McInnes should replace Clement
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