Talk to any Rangers fan at the moment and you’ll quickly found out their full focus is on the upcoming transfer window.
The Gers are set for a substantial overhaul and a more aggressive change of transfer direction in a crucial window as the club looks to regain domestic dominance.
With the lucrative business of Champions League football also very much an achievable objective this summer, Clement, Koppen and everyone else at Rangers have to get it right.
On a tight budget, the club could also use all the help they can get.
Ahead of a summer of change, the news of around £4.3m being poured back into the budget will serve as music to the ears of fans.
Rangers save player contract fortune
Rangers fans have been eagerly awaiting an update on the future of the club’s out-of-contract stars.
They got it over the weekend.
Rangers have announced the departures of five experienced, once-crucial, first-team players at the end of their current deals.
Jon McLaughlin, Borna Barisic, Ryan Jack, John Lundstram and Kemar Roofe have now had their exits from Ibrox officially confirmed by the club.
With only Leon Balogun being kept on at Ibrox, it frees up five crucial areas of the squad and the quite significant wage expenditure that had previously come with them.
Rangers have been pushing the limits of the club’s wage structure season-on-season without the appropriate rewards on the park.
Injuries, questionable transfer business, and a downturn in form have all had their role to play.
But now a large slice of the club’s wage expenses are set to be recycled back into the Rangers coffers.
According to Salary Sport, Jon McLaughlin was earning £6.1k per week at Rangers up until recently.
The goalkeeper is joined by Ryan Jack on £8k per week with the other three names who have just been released on significantly higher wages.
Borna Barisic earned a reported £21k per week at Rangers, whilst John Lundstram banked £22k, and the perennially injured Kemar Roofe took home £26k.
In total that is £83.1k per week which has been saved from the club’s wage bill, or approximately £4.3m per annum.
Ibrox releases come at cost
With wage and transfer budgets delicately intertwined, this is not an insignificant amount of money being freed up at a crucial juncture for the Ibrox club.
The question then becomes what will Rangers do with it?
It’s clear the Gers are targeting young players from emerging football regions who are looking to take the next steps in their footballing careers.
The benefits of playing at Ibrox are sizeable and young players who want to earn big money moves to the top five leagues, including the Premier League, can turn heads with performances in Glasgow.
Compared to players coming up from the drastically inflated EFL system, Rangers will likely be able to strike contracts with such profiles on much less money.
But that doesn’t mean the £4.3m boost to Rangers’ transfer ambitions doesn’t come at a cost.
Whilst we all agree we need change, McLaughlin (46), Barisic (236), Jack (210), Lundstram (153) and Roofe (102) played almost 750 combined games for Rangers.
Experience of life in Glasgow is something which generally cannot be bought.
We can acknowledge that a young, hungry talented side is an exciting prospect for fans.
It’s also true that for their contribution these players have pretty much taken the club has far as they can.
But how next season goes will depend on just how long it takes our new faces to adopt to the expectations of life south of the river Clyde.
