Rangers accounts, despite shelling out over £20million to pay back loans and to end unfavourable contracts, looked as good as they have done in years, and yet, they were still met with a few disgruntled concerns.
For all that we have closed the gap to Celtic in terms of revenue, player trading remains an area where we need to improve.
This might seem like a strange claim to make given that we have broken our transfer record twice, sold Joe Aribo for over £6million and received £4.25m for Steven Gerrard but, it is a reality.
The current squad has a lot of holes in it, it also, still, has a lot of deadwood that needs to be trimmed.
Numerous players are coming to the end of their respective contracts and few will be extended, which begs the question – where is the next big sale coming from?
What I’d say in return is – does there need to be?
For the next financial year we already have the sales of Aribo and Calvin Bassey, we also have our Champions League campaign to add into our accounts.
A successful player trading model doesn’t just mean buying low and selling high either. The gold standard is Nathan Patterson. Players like Leon King and Alex Lowry are great to see in the first team but even better if they are sold to wealthy clubs from down south who can afford to take a punt on talent. Patterson’s success will only help us with future sales.
Then we have players like Fashion Sakala, rumours in the summer suggested that he was the subject of a £3m bid from Burnley. That would have been £3m profit given that he arrived on a free. Every little helps and all that.
We might not have expectations of landing any Bassey-esque fees like we did when Ryan Kent and Alfredo Morelos were at their peak but, in Glen Kamara, Ianis Hagi and Ridvan Yilmaz, we have players who should make us more than we paid for them when they do eventually leave.
The next two windows should see players arrive who are more likely to be investment signings given that we have a relatively solid core of players at “peak” age between 26-30 years old, however – as in the case across the city – they should also be able to immediately contribute.
And that is where our recruitment is currently failing most.