The Ibrox club needs money for January, but there’s no way to raise it from players sales.

Amongst the decisions facing the Ibrox board, two take precedence. The first is whether to sack the manager or back him. If they back him, the question becomes: how do they do it properly? Does he have money to spend?

And if not, how are they going to find any?

It seems clear there isn’t much money available. It’s impossible to believe otherwise when we’ve all seen the numbers and we can say probably so with confidence. But they can’t give the manager nothing unless they’re planning to fire him and bring someone else in. If they do sack him, his successor will have even less money to work with because of the costs involved—paying him off and prising a replacement away from another club, assuming they’re currently employed.

There is an obvious solution, one the press has been pushing for a while: selling players currently at the club. But who are these players they think will generate significant funds? And how much could they realistically bring in?

Let’s start with the obvious: they’re not going to sell Butland in this window. They won’t because the kind of fee it would take to appease the fans simply isn’t coming. No one is bidding millions for him, not now, and not with the way he’s playing. This is a recurring curse for them—poor performances diminishing player value.

Some laughable rumours link Tavernier with big moves simply because he’s had a couple of decent games. That’s not happening either.

Tavernier is going nowhere because no one wants him. Unless something dramatic has changed, he’s still the highest-paid player in Scottish football, and he will remain so until his contract ends next season.

They may attempt to sell Yilmaz, but only if there’s a buyer. I doubt there will be. As for the midfield, the alleged £4 million they expected for Cifuentes is a pipe dream. He’s playing in Greece, and his club likely doesn’t have that kind of money even if they were interested. It’s wishful thinking. They won’t get serious offers for their current central midfielders, no matter how much they hope otherwise.

There’s talk of trying to sell Hagi, which might explain why he’s being put in the so-called shop window. If that’s the case, the media hype makes a bit more sense, though it’s certainly not based on his performances. Still, perhaps his name carries some mystical value, and they might scrape together a low seven-figure sum. It’s unlikely, but stranger things have happened.

As for the wingers, are they hoping to move on Matondo, who has been injured for most of the season and whom they couldn’t shift in the summer? What about Tom Lawrence? The last update on him was back in November when he was supposedly out for four to six weeks. By now, they should have clarified his status. He’s 30, injury-prone, and unlikely to fetch a significant fee.

This brings us to the strikers, and the great hope of moving on Dessers. But what club would pay for a striker branded a flop in the Scottish Premiership? Why would anyone take that gamble?

Short of selling a key player, they’ll be rummaging for spare change. The problem is that many fringe players were let go in the summer, and those who remain aren’t good enough to command fees. The new signings haven’t had time to appreciate in value—if they ever will. Six months isn’t long enough for any significant improvement, and this isn’t something we’ve seen their manager do anyway.

The long and short of it is this: there are no quick fixes, no easy solutions, and perhaps no solutions at all to their financial and squad-building issues. There’s no money, and no visible way of raising the sums required.

It makes you wonder if the decision to stick with the current manager is rooted in the lack of viable alternatives—both in terms of personnel and resources.

That’s not a good place for them to be.