Woops! Clement gives the game away on undisclosed fees with two more star names leaving for zero

Phil Clement has revealed that seven players left Ibrox in the summer for zero.

At the start of June Ryan Jack, John Lundstram, Borna Barisic, Kemar Roofe and Jon McLaughlin left at the end of their contracts.

There were no significant sales, last week Todd Cantwell’s fee to Blackburn Rovers was reported to be £500, with two years left on his contract there was likely a parting gift to get the former Norwich starlet out the building.

Reducing the wage bill by £10m a year was the target with any fees received treated as a welcome bonus.

High earners Sam Lammers and Connor Goldson left for undisclosed fees, now with the window closed Clement has dropped the strongest hint yet that no fees were received with both players likely to have been offered sweeteners to move on to smaller salaries.

Covering tonight’s Q and A at New Edmiston House, at 20.42 under the sub headline ‘Clem is on’ Ross Pilcher of the Daily Record reported:

The manager is on stage and has been discussing Rangers in general.

He’ll be taking questions from the fans in a bit and there seems to still be a fair amount of goodwill towards the Belgian.

It’s easy to forget the run he had Gers on when first taking over and the title race looked like going to the wire until some late season stutter steps.

It’s not been an ideal start but Clement has proven he can build unbeaten runs and that will be needed at some point.

But the key remains beating Celtic and that’s what he’s got to find the formula for

59 minutes later, asked if his side could mount a competitive challenge for the title ‘Clem’ added:

Yeah I’m convinced about that or I wouldn’t be here. Of course it’s a big rebuild. 16 players left. It was not also easy to have a good transfer window because 7 players left for zero and had to be replaced by players that cost money. We had to cut the wages also because it was not sustainable the way the wages were built the last couple of years in the squad.

It seems as if the most mellow and middle of the road questions were selected, hopefully Dundee United offer more meaningful questions on Sunday with another ‘welcome party’ waiting for the players when they return to Ibrox.

Jack Butland, James Tavernier, Tom Lawrence, Rabbi Matondo, Cyriel Dessers and Danilo are the remaining big earners left at Ibrox.