Rangers manager Philippe Clement says signing young players key to getting maximum resale value
At the AGM it was revealed Rangers took in just £810,000 from summer sales; the club announced a £17.2m loss for the year to June and spent £13.4m on player acquisitions; watch Ross County vs Rangers on Sunday, live on Sky Sports from 11am
Friday 6 December 2024 16:47, UK
Philippe Clement has stressed Rangers are on the right path to securing better transfer income amid anger about the fees received during a summer clear-out.
The club revealed in their most recent annual accounts that the total value for the transfer out of five players after the end of June was £800,000.
The Ibrox board were quizzed over the figure at the club's annual general meeting on Thursday amid disbelief from shareholders.
- Will Rangers keep winning? Are Celtic unstoppable? Can Dons bounce back?
- Scottish football: Celtic, Motherwell, Rangers charged for League Cup behaviour
- Stream the Scottish Premiership with NOW
- Scottish Premiership table | Fixtures | Results
Live SPFL
The sum relates to the exit of five players - Connor Goldson, Todd Cantwell, Sam Lammers, Scott Wright and Robby McCrorie. Other players such as Ryan Jack, John Lundstram and Borna Barisic had already departed at the end of their contracts.
Rangers manager Clement stated that factors such as wages had been an issue in negotiations when asked if shareholders and supporters had a point in being unhappy with such a low figure.
And he declared that signing younger players - as Rangers did in the summer - was the key to getting better value in the future.
"That's a hard one for me to say because it's not my job to do that first," he said ahead of Sunday's game at Ross County, live on Sky Sports.
"Secondly, there's also maybe something to do with the wages that players were earning here and every player is the same, you always want to earn more and more and more and not to reduce your wages so maybe because of that [with] some players.
"And that's the dangerous thing because if I say one thing then you guys take everything of all that group the same way.
"So every story has its own thing, some were older, some were maybe earning a lot of money that other teams don't want to pay that, because of that it's clear that the players were not really big in the market, that everybody wanted to sign them.
"So that creates also [a situation], that you have less leverage in those negotiations.
"But what is one of the major things to be marketable as a player, to have players where other teams want to invest in, what is the first thing important in that way? Age.
"Because if you sign a player at 28, 29, 30 years old and you give him a contract for two, three years, four years or five years then you don't have added value.
"It was the same in Monaco, Brugge the same; they changed the system in that way, getting younger players in.
"So it's a logical thing. In that way it's more difficult to sell players who are at a certain age, so those are things you need to take in consideration also."
Clement revealed that long-time injured wingers Rabbi Matondo and Oscar Cortes had returned to full training and were being monitored ahead of the Premiership game in Dingwall on Sunday.
