Yesterday, a profound darkness fell over Ibrox, one as oppressive as anything their fans have ever experienced. Their club, now 12 years old, rose from the ashes of disaster and crisis, but there has likely never been a moment as bleak for their supporters as this. They once believed they had escaped the shadows of 2012 when they clawed their way from the basement of Scottish football back to the SPFL top flight.
The events of 2012 were the worst that Ibrox supporters had ever endured. But they comforted themselves at the time with the notion that they still had a football club to follow, even though we would argue it’s a different club entirely, while they continue to claim otherwise. Regardless of that debate, the fans breathed a collective sigh of relief and pledged unwavering support as their team climbed through the divisions.
There was an assumption among their fans that all they had to do was return to the top flight, and they would instantly be challenging Celtic every year as if the events of 2012 had never happened. This was one of many colossal misjudgements made by their supporters during that period.
Now, 12 years on, things look more disastrous than ever. Back in 2012, at least they had hope. They believed their club had emerged from crisis and told themselves that normality would soon resume. They even thought they might win the odd domestic trophy on their way up, proving—at least in their minds—that they were still “Rangers.”
Watching Celtic’s performances during those intervening years must have given them additional hope. While we were regularly winning titles, we weren’t sweeping the board with trebles every year, as their worst fears might have suggested. Ironically—and hilariously—that dominance only began when they reached the top flight. From that point, we won four consecutive trebles, as if waiting for their “return” before unleashing the full power of our machine.
When they won the COVID-season title, their fans must have believed the glory days had returned. But they failed to understand what had actually happened. They refused to accept that Rangers had died. As I said at the time, no matter what the new club calls itself, it is not Rangers. It will never be Rangers. And crucially, Rangers never truly existed in the way they thought it did.
Before the 2012 crisis, many of us used to wonder what Rangers would have looked like if forced to live within its means. Could they have consistently challenged Celtic? Could they have regularly won titles and trophies? More importantly, could they even have consistently finished second?
Let me explain. To run an operation the size of that club costs tens of millions of pounds every year before a single coach or football player is paid.
Even running at a bare minimum—the subsistence level required to stage games in front of crowds every weekend—costs a fortune, far beyond what clubs like Aberdeen, Hearts, or Hibs must spend.
The maths are simple. Their club employs hundreds of people—ground staff, office staff, security, concession workers—and all those costs add up. Then there’s the expense of running their training ground. It’s an enormous financial burden. Last year, they posted a £17 million loss. Over the summer, they cut £6 million from their wage bill, which would have limited that loss to £11 million.
Now imagine taking another £11 million out to break even. What would that team look like? Look at the mess they are in now and envision that squad being even weaker. Would they still be ahead of Aberdeen in second place?
Even in their more successful years, I looked at their squad and compared the money they were losing with the costs of running that team. I often wondered what their side would look like if you stripped away £10 or £15 million. You can do the same now.
The thing is, two key variables are at play here.
The first is UEFA’s financial sustainability regulations, which limit how much clubs can spend on playing squads and coaching staff as a percentage of earnings. Right now, they are operating close to the maximum they’re allowed to spend. By contrast, we are significantly better positioned: we can spend more because we earn enough to remain debt-free, avoid losses, and maintain financial security.
That brings us to the second variable.
Financial sustainability regulations impose a natural limit on their spending, but there’s another factor: their infrastructure. Running a setup like theirs costs tens of millions annually. If they want to operate sustainably, they might not even be able to spend up to UEFA’s mandated limit on salaries and transfers.
Keep in mind that the pressure isn’t coming solely from UEFA.
A significant amount comes from their own board. Some directors clearly don’t want to continue funding unsustainable losses. So even if the Ibrox club manages to comply with UEFA’s financial sustainability requirements, the internal pressure to reduce costs across the board remains because their directors no longer have the appetite to underwrite consistent annual deficits.
Yesterday, the dismal state of their playing squad became glaringly obvious to even their most blinkered fan. Not only does it come on the back of the St Mirren defeat, but it could have been a lot worse than the mere dropping of two points.
Equally obvious is the hopelessness of their coaching staff. Heading into Thursday’s game, they sit 14 points behind Celtic. Any serious club would have sacked the manager by now, preparing for a fresh start next season.
Yet he remains in charge, and that tells you everything about their financial predicament. We don’t know exactly what it would cost to sack him, but it’s clearly more than they can afford right now. So, he limps on, perhaps because he’s willing to work under the financial constraints the club faces daily.
And perhaps that’s the real reason they haven’t dismissed him; it isn’t simply that they can’t afford to. It might be that he agrees with the policy of doing more with less. Maybe he’s signed on to the downsizing project and understands it’s their future. If so, then their problems are just beginning.
Yesterday was another bad day for them, but it’s just one of many in a long line of bad days. Worse, those days are far from over.
In fact, they may only be getting started. When the figures for this campaign are announced, they are likely to be even bleaker than last season’s, which will make further cost-cutting unavoidable. Their fans haven’t yet come to terms with what that means—but they will. They’ll have no choice.
Such a bleak and grim future for them. What a pity…
Does anyone know how much they have lost since their Lazarus act? Last year they created more revenue than they had ever done previously but recorded staggering losses 17million pounds.(That loss figu
re alone is more revenue than any other club in Scotland bar us.)
It seems that they have lost money every year bar 1 to my recollection.
As far as UEFA goes ? Juventus, Man City, PSG, Real, Barcelona all would have to be looked into far before the resurrections across town are, but be assured that will not happen.
There’s absolutely not a snowballs chance in hell of The SFA or The SPFL or The Scummy’s from The Scummy Scottish Football Media looking into their financial situation…
Think UEFA must be hovering around them dhigg or they wouldn’t be cost cutting the way they did in the summer for sure…
Regardless it’s the most delicious schadenfreude seeing them squirm and suffer for sure !
They’ve posted a loss every year of their existence mate, they tried to spin a pre-tax profit of a few grand as being in the black last year, but still posted a loss of over £4 million once the tax was accounted for!
According to below post on Twitter they’ve spent £126.81 million more than they’ve earned in their 12 years as a club, and yet their thick-as-fuck fans still accuse their board, who have absorbed most of that in return for worthless shares, of not doing enough to finance the shitshow!
https://x.com/AgentScotland/status/1851316722206171545
You’d have to have a heart of stone not to PISH yourself laughing at the zombies.
James just wondering if The Rangers and the media will be sending support to the Herts for being denied a pen after it had been given by the ref for VAR to overturn it as the incident started outside the box?? or will Gollum say sorry?
Hearts yesterday had a slightly similar but different VAR pen decision denial yesterday. IMO worse than the one the Klan are still complaining about.
The Celtic one through no fault of the club had Beaton blow early for the coming together imo to give them the advantage of a free kick in a very dangerous area, the pull continued to a step on the line. Tough interpretation since the ref blew early it could be argued. BUT not by Collum.
Move on to yesterday the ref with a pulling incident that started outside the box and clearly into the box blew for the pen for VAR to rule it out and a free kick given.
Now what interpretation of the rule is correct here? Simple question.
Lastly VAR cannot intervene in a yellow card incident, why? it could be a second and sending off.
Butland’s dangerous play in the St Mirren pen, I know the new ruling on booking for a pen but surely dangerous play is a red regardless, some clarity needed here. He hit the St Mirren lad like a bus.
Quicker we get rid of VAR the better.
To your post James, what a predicament the rangers are in. Blind optimism is their only friend.
They are hoping to get big £ numbers in on January for some players and it would be very unlikely to happen. They may bring in £3-4m and lose 3-4 players with a couple of loanees coming in at best. Teams interested in their highly paid galacticos may have difficult negotiations on salaries. In theory they may get fees in 6 figures to move some off the wage bills to allow from some negotiation wiggle. Effectively weakens the team.
Said before unhappy dressing rooms often have more and lenghier injuries too…. Maybe we are seeing this play out also.
Can’t wait for ratface Rae ( £570k EBT) to take up interim charge, then the fun begins….
HH
JimBhoy – on the Heart’s penalty decision, the rule is very clear on this. A foul that starts outside of the box and continues inside the box on the attacking player then a penalty “must be awarded” (Law 12.3). Assuming the whistle wasn’t blown early, the decision by VAR is plain wrong.
The denizens of the DebtDome might not be overly knowledgeable on FSR and the implications of their Revenue to Expenditure ratios for in their mind the annual losses are irrelevant. The see it as the Board’s responsibility to suck up those losses.
The programme of ongoing Cost cutting is beginning to show on the field of play but the fans still haven’t cottoned on to how serious the situation is, they’re expecting, actually demanding, that the Board sanctions Millions for the January Transfer Budget. When this doesn’t happen they will scream ‘blue murder’. The points gap will only increase between now and May and there will be a drop off in Crowd attendance figures hitting the Match Day Revenues. This loss will be critical as this money is what keeps their lights on. So their overall financial situation will deteriorate exponentially.
This will be ignored again by the fans. Their ingrained sense of entitlement allows them ‘tunnel vision’ on this issue, It’s the Board’s duty to find the money. So when Season Book renewals go out with massive hikes in prices that’ll be the wake up call for the Klan. By then it’s too late. The decline is baked in.
John M and Jim Bhoy.
The real shocker in terms of penalty claims at the weekend was at Tannadice. Mr Beaton immediately awarded a penalty for Dundee Utd when a shot hit Aberdeen’s Nicky Devlin’s arms, which were tucked in tight in front of his body, like a boxer. VAR intervened and the penalty was overturned. We will all recall Mr Beaton denying us a penalty at Ibrox when Goldson arms raised above his head tipped a shot over the bar. We may need to rewrite Tennyson’s ‘Ulysses’ for Mr Beaton to read ‘I mete and dole laws unequally unto a savage race’
Clement and the board know the situation, that they now have a squad not all that much better than the rest in the league, hence they’re hovering just ahead in 2nd and will need a good/lucky run to win a trophy. The fans are still to fully realise this and just think clement is rubbish. That may still be the case but they’d need to get really lucky with a manager to do much better with the level of squad they have. Managers can only ever work with what they have. Look at Rodgers last season, some folk calling for his head a few months in.
I note with interest the article mentioning Celtic weren’t playing great when *rangers weren’t in the league and only started hitting trebles once they returned, and yet it’s always mentioned we don’t need them. We don’t NEED them, but I do think it makes a difference them being a rival in the league