‘Rangers transfer plans hinge on Champions League’ after £20m news – Exclusive
Rangers may have secured fresh investment, but that does not necessarily mean splashing millions in the transfer market.
There have been reports that the 49ers will inject £20million into Rangers, with talk of that being spent solely on players.
However, so far the Ibrox club have brought in Lyall Cameron, who signed a pre-contract agreement earlier in the year.
Elsewhere, Russell Martin is reportedly set to make Max Arons and Kwame Poku his first acquisitions in Glasgow.
Champions League football key to Rangers’ spending
Although Aarons and Poku appear set to join Rangers, no initial figure will be spent on them, and many will wonder when the real spending will begin.
However, football finance expert Dan Plumley – speaking exclusively to Ibrox News – has explained why that will probably not happen for a while.
“We talked about £20m, but what can that money do?” Plumley said.
“That wasn’t necessarily always going to go into the playing budget. There’s investment in a football club that stretches a whole manner of ways into infrastructure, academy, and youth development, pushing the boundaries and looking to leverage more commercial deals and sponsorship.
“There’s so much you can do with investment in a club, and sometimes the narrative is that people see that headline number and think, ‘Well, that’s automatically going to go into the transfer market’.
“However, that is not the case, and I didn’t expect it to be the case with Rangers. A lot also hinges on where they are at the minute, and the Champions League qualifiers coming up.
“If you look at the playing side of things in particular, and transfer market activity, despite that £20m worth of investment and whatever is ring-fenced, there was also always going to be a big shift in the way they operated in the transfer market, based on what happens in the qualifiers.
“That’s tough because you’ve got the season starting, you’ve still got the window open, and you’re not sure what competition you’ll be in. It’s not ideal. However, I get the feeling that with that, a lot of the transfer market activity is going to be geared around those Champions League qualifiers.
Rangers must be shrewd amid Poku and Aarons deals
As Plumley says, the Gers are going to have to be savvy when they sign players this summer.
Of course, they will spend money, but correctly, they must understand their European fate before splashing millions. With that in mind, the signings of Poku and Aarons would be a solid start to the transfer window.
Both have quality and will come at no cost, which is a bonus for the Glasgow outfit.
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