Daily Record lets slip about Ibrox cash crisis

The Daily Record has stumbled into revealing details of the cash crisis at Ibrox.

Micky Beale recently spoke about a budget with no restrictions but Giovanni van Bronckhorst dealt with the realities with Ross Wilson bailing out last night for relegation-bound Nottingham Forest.

While Ibrox fans rejoice at Wilson’s departure Scott Burns applies some context to the issue by revealing that the club is repaying the £21.5m loss in season 20/21 to win the behind-closed-doors title.

Ianis Hagi and Kemar Roofe were signed by Wilson that season and are a continuing drain on the wage bill, Roofe has one more season on incredible wages while Hagi extended his contract while injured in the hope that an offer from Galatasaray, Real Madrid or Manchester City finally arrives.

Explaining the circumstances that Wilson was working under, Burns tells Record readers:

You can hardly blame Ross Wilson for heading down the A1 to England and a new job at Nottingham Forest.

And his departure for the City Ground is going to be a massive loss for the Ibrox giants. Most people within the club appreciate the job he did but it’s fair to say that love is not exactly universal within elements of the support.

Wilson and the board took it in the neck for the recruitment since Rangers won the title under Steven Gerrard. Celtic’s domination when it comes to the title has been the main source of anger and we all saw the banner which read: ‘Ross Wilson, director of failure.’

But that was just a knee-jerk reaction and completely wrong. Wilson wasn’t helped because Rangers overspent on stopping Celtic’s 10-in-a-row bid. It did the job but it came at a cost. Rangers have had to repay the money they spent and Celtic, with cash in the bank from their domestic dominance and big-money sales, spent at a whole different level.

In November the Record were telling their army of readers about record turnover and a profit for the 10-year-old club, there was no suggestion that Wilson was up against an opponent spending at a whole different level. James Bisgrove has brought in various ground breaking commercial deals to apparently increase the transfer warchest.

Burns continued:

Fans would have been hoping for hefty spending on the back of that and Champions League qualification but the board made it clear big money wasn’t there. The likes of Ben Davies, Antonio Colak, Tom Lawrence and Rabbi Matondo were brought in along with Malik Tillman, who was a loan with an option to buy this summer, which Michael Beale is keen to do.

There were no new signings after beating PSV Eindhoven to secure a place in the Champions League group stage.

The bottom line is that Wilson was operating with one hand behind his back and the fact he has accepted a return to the Premier League shows he is a well-respected figure down south.

Rangers may get a six-figure compensation package – but it will surely only be in the weeks after he leaves that Rangers and their fans realise his real value.

May get six figures won’t get near covering a month of Roofe or Lundstram’s wages.

Meanwhile Beale has to get a turn out of Rabbi Matondo, Ridvan Yilmaz, Ben Davies, Tom Lawrence and John Souttar.

Four of Saturday’s Starting XI will be free agents in less than two months while John Lundstram and Borna Barisic enter the final years of their contracts.