Why The Bassey Deal Won’t Fix Ibrox’s Long Term Financial Problems.

Kenny Dalglish thinks the powers-that-be at Ibrox are “heartbroken” at losing Calvin Bassey.

I don’t know what planet he lives on at times, but it isn’t this one. Not only are the club across the city overjoyed at getting this deal done, but they’ve been pushing it since they lost the Europa League Final. That run didn’t solve their financial problems, and since that was realised inside the walls they have been trying to punt this guy while they can.

I am amazed that any club has fallen for this. But if any club is going to realise whatever potential this guy has it’s Ajax; that just makes good sense. For all that, I think they’ve wasted a colossal sum of money here on a very ordinary player and a poor defender. Time will tell, but I don’t believe this guy is worth that sort money, or anything near it.

Just how deep is the hole over there? Their European run and their sales so far have certainly gone some way towards filling it … the difficulty with this question is that we know what their losses have been over the years, but we don’t know how they covered them.

We know there has been plenty of equity confetti and we’ve had a good laugh at it … but what are the terms under which those directors accepted those deals? Are those shares redeemable for cash somewhere along the line? What are the dividend payments? In short, do those shares give those people rights to a profit share and is that what’s pushing this?

They have spent on transfers so far only what they have brought into the club.

Van Bronckhorst already acknowledges that he cannot spend all the money for Bassey; bringing in a replacement might be as good as it gets, although I do suspect they will want to try and pull a rabbit out of the hat to appease the fans.

But there ought to be some cash left over.

Remember, too, that their club makes less than ours does in real terms.

We bring in more cash from season ticket sales and merchandising.

This means we can spend more, not just on transfers but on wages, and that’s crucial. UEFA FFP regulations limit their wage spending … this is the reason all mad talk over there about them being able to spend £50 million if they got rid of all their soon-to-be-out-of-contract players was fanciful rubbish.

Their wage bill has to be capped. They have sold Aribo and Bassey; neither of them was amongst the biggest earners at the club. There is still a lot of expensive filler in that squad of theirs, and they have added to the wage bill instead of bringing it down. Any move for the likes of Ben Davies is only going to make that problem worse.

There is no doubt that their European run and the sale of Bassey has saved them from tough, tough choices and a very difficult season ahead. But these are stop gap measures, with the potential to do even greater long term damage if they go on a spending spree.

Bear in mind, their European run was a one-off. The sales of Patterson and Bassey coming on the heels of each other might appear to suggest that they’ve cracked the code on this selling of players thing, but remember that the Patterson fee is massively inflated from that which Everton actually paid for him, and that Aribo only went for £6 million upfront.

Where is the next big sale coming from?

Unless Kent or Morelos signs a new deal it won’t be from one of them. There is no equivalent of Patterson or Bassey in that side right now, and that means this is a trick they can only turn once in a blue moon.

They are out of immediate danger, that much is obvious.

But that club still spends way too much money, and when their manager is talking like an austerity boss even in times of major profit like these, you know there are still major issues under the hood.