Rangers sale ‘plan in place’ as £10m exit claim made amid Ibrox attendance fears
Rangers have been on the back foot since the start of the 2024/25 season with Philippe Clement’s men often not managing to live up to expectations.
They’ve found themselves miles off of Celtic in the Scottish Premiership and although they took a good fight to Brendan Rodgers’ men in the Scottish League Cup final last year, they still left Hampden Park without another trophy to add to their cabinet.
The Gers have, however, managed to finish in the top eight of the Europa League group stage and are also set to face Queen’s Park in the fifth round of the Scottish Cup on Sunday.
The game on 9 February should be a walk in the park for Clement and his men, even if the likes of Bailey Rice and other youth gems start.
Peter Grant believes Rangers should be built on trophies rather than money
As with all teams in the winter transfer window, a number of the Gers’ first-team players were linked with an Ibrox exit.
Kieran Dowell and Rabbi Matondo are the biggest names to have exited Ibrox at the halfway point in the season but one rumour that wouldn’t go away was the sale of Cyriel Dessers.
The Nigeria international has been long-linked with an exit from Clement’s team but nothing has ever come to fruition.
While one of the Gers’ main goals this season has been to cut down their wage bill, BBC Radio Scotland pundit Peter Grant believes they should be more focused on keeping their talent to win trophies, rather than selling them off.
“Rangers have got to be built on silverware, that’s what they’ve got to try and be built on, I get that they have a plan for selling players or whatever but they have to be winning trophies,” he said on the Go Radio Football Show (6 February).
“If they end up getting £10million for somebody or £5million for somebody but win no trophies then you’ll be north of £10million anyway because nobody will be going to your games.
“I don’t care how faithful you are, you have got to see a winning team on the pitch and Rangers have not been that for long enough in the respect of that, consistently winning Championships.
“However, Celtic have been and Celtic are still getting maximum money, well above the likes of £25million for Jota and Matt O’Riley but I still think that if Rangers had sold Dessers without bringing anyone in and Danilo wasn’t available then you’d be thinking that they don’t think the Scottish Cup matters.
“But it’s still a domestic trophy and that’s massive for them.”
Philippe Clement needs to centre his focus on the Scottish Cup
Even though Rangers could find themselves in the latter stages of the Europa League after their impressive group-stage performance, it still feels like the Scottish Cup is a much more acquireable target for them.
They got ever-so-close to winning the Scottish League Cup over Celtic but unfortunately, they fell at the final hurdle and missed out on the trophy after getting beaten on penalties.
If the Belgian wants the 2024/25 season to be seen as more of a success, it feels like the only way for him to do that will be by bringing the Scottish League Cup back to Ibrox.
Indeed, that means they’ll have to get past Celtic but as was shown in their 3-0 victory over the Bhoys on 2 January, it’s something that could be possible.
Only time will tell what the future holds for Rangers but for the moment, it feels like Clement needs to put his full focus towards the Scottish Cup if he wants to add another trophy to his cabinet.