The £5.5m Rangers wage savings laid bare as pundits see 'clearance' as painful first step in right direction
The pundits may prefer to call it a clearance, not a reset. But however you want to frame it, it's been a summer of change and upheaval at Rangers.
Philippe Clement has been keen to bring the average age down and move on some of the lingering deadwood that once brought home the title under Steven Gerrard, but had since let Celtic reinstate their dominance. Out have gone Connor Goldson, Borna Barisic, John Lundstram et al to be replaced with a group of younger players who Clement sees as the next generation that can bring home the gold.
With that changing of the guard has come a dramatic saving on a wage bill that had grown bloated - something the pundits largely agreed was necessary after years of costly stumbles and missteps in the market. Incredibly, salarysport.com had Rangers' weekly wage bill at £500,000 last season – Celtic's, in contrast, was in the region £425,000.
It's a different story now at Ibrox, however. Most estimates would suggest they have cleared close to £200,000 off that total, and replaced it with seven new players whose salaries total around £92,000. The long and short of it? £100,000+ scythed off the end and a saving of £5.5m per season in total.
Rangers ins 2024/25: Cerny (£20k), Propper (£15k), Bajrami (£15k), Igamane (£14k), Kaswanirjo (£12k), Barron (£8k), Jefte (£8k). Approx total: £92,000 per week
Rangers outs 2024/25: Goldson (£37k), Davies (£27k), Roofe (£26k), Cantwell (£22k), Lundstram (£22k), Barisic (£21k), Cifuentes (£16k), Jack (£8k), McCrorie (£6k), McLaughlin (£6k), Wright (£6k). Approx total: £197,000 per week
2023/24 approx wage bill: £500,000 per week
2024/25 approx wage bill: £395,000 per week
There are naturally caveats with a lot of those figures - Lundstram's actual