How much San Francisco 49ers takeover of Rangers will affect summer transfer budget
03/24/2025 03:00 PM
It has been a strange period in the history of Glasgow Rangers Football Club since Steven Gerrard left for Aston Villa.
The former Rangers manager left behind a team top of the Scottish Premiership which seems like a long time ago now.
He also left a Rangers squad that was worth considerably more than the one he inherited and what it cost to build.
This summer, Nils Koppen will look to rebuild it with hopes that the transfer guarantees sought from the 49ers Enterprises group will make a difference.
Providing an update on the San Francisco 49ers takeover, Chris Jack of The Rangers Review also touched on the transfer budget that the technical director might have available.
What sort of transfer budget will Rangers have this summer?
Financial fair play dictates that any prospective new owner could just sweep to power at Ibrox and start splashing out.
What Jack has suggested might not be what fans want to hear:
"Nils Koppen, the technical director, has started planning for the summer but what Rangers will spend remains up in the air.
"What can be said for sure is that it will be done sensibly and sustainably. As ever, it is about how Rangers spend their money that is the most important thing rather than the quantum of the budget. Fans have seen, after all, the issues that poor recruitment can cause."
What it sounds like, is that there will be no blank cheque for the new Rangers manager and Koppen will have to shop smart again.
Do Rangers need more money to spend this summer?
How much Rangers have spent isn't, and hasn't been the problem.
A quick look at some of the recent fees that have been paid in the summer of 2024 and under Giovanni van Bronckhorst in 2023 tells its own story.
Danilo – £6m, Cyriel Dessers – £4.5m, Mohamed Diomande – £4.3m, Oscar Cortes – £4m, Ben Davies – £4m, Ridvan Yilmaz – £3.5m, Nedim Bajrami £3.5m and Sam Lammers – £3m, eight players since 2022 for well over £30m and they aren't the only ones who cost money either.
Out of those names, only Diomande can be classed as a success and a good fit for the player trading model.
Quality, not quantity is the key.
There is a core of good, young players, who need some wise, old heads who can lead them and allow them to flourish, rather than leave them to shoulder the burden of expectation.
Players like Bajrami and Robin Propper should be setting the example not sitting on the bench or in the stands.
How the money is spent this summer, not how much is spent, will dictate Rangers chances of sustaining a title challenge next season.
