Ianis Hagi's Rangers wage windfall revealed as reason for ballboy shirt giveaway gesture becomes clear

Ianis Hagi’s situation at Rangers has been cloudy this summer but is becoming a bit clearer - as are some of his words and actions from 12 months ago.

The 25-year-old Romanian was touted as someone who could possibly have a future at Ibrox under Philippe Clement while he was starring for his country at Euro 2024 in Germany and given the fact he could have been like a new signing for Philippe Clement who hadn’t had the chance to work with him given he was on loan at Alaves last season when the Belgian arrived.

So, given Clement is on the lookout for quality, it was perhaps surprising when he revealed Hagi wouldn’t have any part to play under him. Clement said: “Is he part of my plans? No, we had clear talks before the pre-season with his agents about that. We need to look, like I said, at a lot of things in the club about wages, how many you can have in a position with the budget we have and to get the budget to get transfers.”

Clement’s reference to the wages made more sense when it emerged that if Hagi - just one game away from becoming a Rangers centurion as he sits on 99 games - hits a certain number of appearances for the Light Blues then it will trigger a wage hike on the contract extension he signed at Ibrox shortly after Michael Beale was appointed in December 2022. Record Sport can now reveal that the figure his weekly pay packet would rise by is around £6000, meaning it would cost the club around £600,000 if he remained in Glasgow for the remainder of the two years has deal has to run.

Clement might feel that the rise on top of the wage he’s already picking up at Rangers is money that could be better spent elsewhere. Rangers fans appear split with some calling for his return after recent impressive displays,