When Rangers paid £3 million to bring one player to Ibrox last summer, they obviously did not spend long enough thinking about what could happen if things went wrong.
Flash forward 12 months, and the downsides to that particular deal are becoming painfully clear.
Not only did Rangers hand one of their more expensive signings in recent windows a long-term contract until 2027, they also lumbered themselves with a wage-packet that makes Sam Lammers almost unobtainable to many of his admirers.
The expectation is that, despite a superb loan spell at FC Utrecht in the second half of 2023/24, Lammers will still leave Ibrox in the coming weeks or months. There is certainly no shortage of interest.
FC Twente are keen. AZ Alkmaar too, with the Golden Boot-sharing Vangelis Pavlidis on his way to Benfica for big money.
In an ideal world, FC Utrecht would jump at the chance to tie Lammers down permanently too. But having already stretched their budget to bring the well-travelled Dutchman in on loan during the January window, a full-time deal felt fanciful to say the least.
Rangers still likely to sell Sam Lammers
“He earns one and a half million euros (a year) at Rangers. The Scots have paid a large part of his salary in these six months,” Dutch reporter Hans Kraay Jr told ESPN a month ago, Lammers’ £20,000-a-week salary well in excess of the fees Utrecht are used to stumping up.
“But, in principle, they will not do that anymore in the new season. And Utrecht will of course not pay one and a half million.”
There is, however, some hope still.
According to De Telegraaf, Utrecht may soon have a further £8.5 million to play with in the transfer market. Highly-rated defender Ryan Flamengo is expected to join PSV Eindhoven sooner rather than later, the Eredivisie champions submitting a new and improved bid for a man valued in the region of 10 million euros.
Could Utrecht use that windfall to bring Lammers back to the Stadion Galgenwaard? The one-time PSV, Atalanta and Eintracht Frankfurt forward would eat up only around a third of that £8.5 million nest egg, though perhaps much of the rest could be used to finance Lammers’ wages.
£8.5 million windfall could help finance deal
Utrecht may have understandably concerns about handing the Ibrox misfit a wage far superior to many of their current players. But after scoring 10 goals in only 18 games to fire Ron Jans’ side into the European places, perhaps Utrecht will consider Lammers a man worth breaking their pay structure for.
“The discussion is now underway to retain Lammers for FC Utrecht,” reporter Ben ten Boden writes for De Utrechtse Internet Courant.
“I would still do everything I can to ensure Lammers a longer stay at the Galgenwaard (Stadium). Frans (Seumeren, Utrecht president) and his billionaires have to provide the money.”
