Rangers cannot run as club after ‘impossible’ mistake exposed at AGM
Barry Ferguson has insisted that Rangers must avoid selling players for as little as they did last summer at all costs.
There was a collective gasp at Gers’ AGM on Thursday [5 December] when chief financial officer James Taylor admitted that five players, including Todd Cantwell, Connor Goldston and Sam Lammers were sold for a total sum of £810,000.
The mismanagement has since been met with severe criticism from pundits and fans, with Ferguson now admitting his shock at hearing the news and adding that the Light Blues cannot continue functioning as a club with “impossible” mistakes like these.
“It took me aback, bad business, but going forward, I don’t think that’d ever happen again”, he said on The Go Radio Football Show [6 December].
“There’s no doubt Cantwell, Goldson and Lammers were probably in the highest bracket in terms of wages, that’s something that Rangers are certainly trying to reduce I think.
“I think they have reduced their wage bill by £6m since these players have left, but getting only 800k in, I was surprised.
“I think they were just wanting to get these higher earners off the wage bill and they were going to take as little as possible in just to get them away, and I don’t think that mistake will happen.
“It can’t happen again because you can’t run the club like that, it’s impossible because it’s a lot of money to lose.
“I’m looking at that five players just now and I’d think probably £2.5m.”
Rangers cannot run as club after ‘impossible’ mistake exposed at AGM
Selling first-team players like Cantwell, Goldston and Lammers for a meagre sum of £810,000 is embarrassing, to say the least.
As Ferguson said, the Glasgow giants might have settled for low transfer fees for those players in a desperate bid to get them off their wage bill. However, they should not have been in such a position to begin with.
The instability at Ibrox has been a cause for concern to the fans for months, with the Gers yet to find a permanent chairman to replace John Bennett.
There are positive signs, however, with Patrick Stewart taking charge as the new CEO on 16 December.
Interim chairman John Gilligan confirmed that Rangers will also announce the appointment of Bennett’s replacement “shortly” at the AGM.
Fans will, therefore, be hopeful that the Light Blues can put the period of turmoil behind them and the new year is a sign of better things to come.
In other Rangers news, Kris Boyd has torn this Gers star to shreds after he did something bizarre.
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