Clement Links Low Transfer Income to Rangers’ Wage and Squad Age Reduction Strategy

Philippe Clement, Rangers’ manager, stated that the club’s objective to decrease its wage expenditure and the average age of its squad contributed to the relatively small amount of transfer income generated this summer. Scott Wright was among the players who left Rangers during the close season. During Rangers’ annual general meeting held on Thursday, it was disclosed that the club received £810,000 from the transfers of Todd Cantwell, Connor Goldson, Sam Lammers, Robby McCrorie, and Scott Wright. Additionally, seven other players departed after their contracts expired. The club’s spending on new players amounted to approximately £13.4m. Previously, the club had declared a loss of £17.2m for the financial year concluding in June. Prior to Rangers’ Scottish Premiership match against Ross County on Sunday, Clement stated, “We knew we had to reduce the wages a lot.” He continued by saying, “Every player – I was the same – you always want to earn more and more and more and not to reduce your wages.” Clement further explained, “Some were older, some were maybe earning a lot of money that other teams don’t want to pay.” He elaborated on the issue of player value, stating, “If you sign a player 28, 29, 30 years old and you give him a contract for two, three years, four years or five years – and some players still had contracts also – you know you don’t have added value.” Clement has been working to integrate academy players more frequently into first-team training sessions. He expressed his conviction that allowing young players to compete in the Championship would be advantageous for Scottish football, drawing parallels with systems in Belgium, Croatia, the Netherlands, and Scandinavian countries. “They’re getting results out of that,” Clement remarked. He added, “I don’t see how that can be stopped then if it’s better for Scottish football then everybody would need to stand behind it.” Clement also referenced Scotland head coach Steve Clarke, stating, “I hear [Scotland head coach Steve Clarke] speaking. There has to be a drastic turnaround in what’s going on with the young players in Scotland.”