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Rangers chairman Andrew Cavenagh’s announcement that the board will remain ‘opaque’ over how much of his US-based consortium’s £20million investment will be spent on players is the surest indication yet of a whole new approach over playing hardball in the transfer market.
The failure to build a functional ‘player-trading model’ under the previous regime became a serious problem with the revelation that, last summer, five first-team squad members – Todd Cantwell, Sam Lammers, Connor Goldson, Robby McCrorie and Scott Wright – were sold for a combined total of just £810,000 to help drive down the wage bill.
In addition to struggling to bring in top-dollar for prime talent after selling Calvin Bassey to Ajax for just short of £20m and Joe Aribo to Southampton in the summer of 2022, the board handed ill-fated manager Michael Beale a whopping £21m to blow on new players during the 2023 summer window without the oversight of a sporting director.
Beale was sacked at the start of the following October and the club have found themselves in the process of trying to right the ship ever since.
Cavenagh and vice-chairman Paraag Marathe of 49ers Enterprises have installed Kevin Thelwell as sporting director, with his former Everton colleague Dan Purdy brought in as technical director to lead an approach which Marathe insists will be forged ‘from an empirical, data-based perspective and really trying to find any competitive edge they can in the recruitment, procurement and, ultimately, signing of players.’
Protracted talks over the transfer of striker Cyriel Dessers to AEK Athens points to a keenness not to let assets leave on the cheap. It is understood the Greek club want to pay less than the £5m Rangers are looking for, with an agreement still in the balance.
Charman Andrew Cavenagh says the board will remain 'opaque' over how much of consortium's £20m is spent on players
Vice chairman Padraag Marathe, above left, and Andrew Cavenagh descend the marble staircase at Ibrox
However, it is Cavenagh who has made it clearest that Rangers are now in the market for sharp recruitment at the right price. That’s the whole point of not telling anyone – agents, other clubs, targeted players – just how much is currently in the pot for new blood over the summer.
Cavenagh wants the club to keep their hand close to their chest in an attempt to protect their position in negotiations.
Following the club EGM on Monday that ratified his US-based consortium’s £20m investment, Cavenagh said: ‘It doesn’t do us any good to talk about how much of that is going into the squad, what position, etc, because that just makes our job harder in the window.’
The blueprint is clearly there. Now, the proof will be in the pudding as Rangers endeavour to improve an area of the club that has been largely dysfunctional for quite some time.
Americans looking to strengthen women's team after Potter departure
Rangers CEO Patrick Stewart is to chair a special group aimed at taking the women’s team to the next level despite the loss of head coach Jo Potter earlier this week.
Potter left her role after two years and is understood to be heading for Crystal Palace with a compensation payment for her services coming the other way.
However, that will be no impediment to new chairman Andrew Cavenagh and 49ers Enterprises turbocharging a plan to boost the profile and infrastructure of the women’s set-up as part of the overall project of putting the entire club back on a stronger footing.
Stewart has been instructed to form a sub-panel of the board involving directors Gene Schneur and Fraser Thornton and develop a ‘multi-year strategic plan’ relating exclusively to the development and strengthening of the women’s set-up.
Jo Potter had a fine record in the domestic cups but was unable to lead Rangers to league title
This is likely to involve looking at increased commercial opportunities in addition to building on the progress made in recent years and strengthening the football side of things.
In both seasons under Potter, Rangers won the Scottish Cup and League Cup double, but failed to lift the SWPL 1 crown. In her first campaign, they lost out on goal difference to Celtic and, last term, blew the title at home on the final day when losing at Ibrox to eventual champions Hibernian.
Asked about the women’s side in an interview with the club’s in-house TV channel, Cavenagh said: ‘We see nothing but upside there. As you know, the women’s team had a great season – two cup wins and coming close to winning the treble.
‘We think we have barely scratched the surface in women’s football. I think we are just getting started in that area. We’re excited about it.’
Could Raith Rovers and Rangers create a partnership for players?
Raith Rovers are awaiting a proposal from Rangers on a possible partnership that would provide young players with more first-team football.
As of last week, new Scottish FA rules allow Premiership clubs to strike co-operation agreements with lower-division counterparts in an effort to promote emerging Scottish talent.
More flexible loans is the key objective of the plan, which has already led Celtic, Aberdeen, Dundee United and Hearts to enter into discussions with Queen’s Park, Arbroath, Montrose and Spartans respectively.
In an interview with Raith TV, the Fife club’s director, Ruaridh Kilgour, confirmed that Rangers representatives had been to Stark’s Park earlier this year, looked at the facilities and promised to report back.
Raith Rovers' Stark's Park could yet be an unlikely home for Rangers players in the future
Rangers sporting director Kevin Thelwell will have a big say in whether the move takes place
That, though, was before the departure of Rangers’ former technical director, Nils Koppen, and before the club’s new owners appointed Kevin Thelwell as their sporting director.
The Ibrox club have more pressing issues to deal with right now, including the small matter of a first-team overhaul, but the groundwork for a link-up with Raith will be somewhere in Thelwell’s in-tray.
Kilgour said they had not heard from Rangers since their visit to Kirkcaldy, when it was suggested that the collaboration might be extended to include more than just young Scottish players.
‘They saw this as something where they could potentially send us other players,’ said Kilgour. ‘So players who are maybe a bit older than 21 and also players who weren’t Scottish. It was left with Rangers to draw up a proposal.’
While the ball is in Rangers’ court, Kilgour stressed that Raith would not agree to a deal unless it ticked a number of boxes. It had to make financial sense and it needed the approval of their manager, Barry Robson.
‘And then finally - and most importantly - there’d be a kind of brand perspective where we would put it to supporters,’ added Kilgour. ‘Because this is one of those decisions where we feel supporters should be consulted. And the reason for that is we know that some supporters will not like the potential to be partnered with other clubs.’
Change of venue for Greeks might just work in Russell Martin's favour
Rather lost amid this week’s EGM and the approval for a £20m investment in the club was a small detail that might just boost Rangers’ chances of taking a step closer to the Champions League group stage.
As the new owners offered more information on the bigger picture at Ibrox, UEFA confirmed that the return leg of Rangers’ second qualifying round tie against Panathinaikos next month would not be held at the Greek club’s home ground.
Eight days after the first leg at Ibrox on July 22, the return will be held at the Olympic Stadium in Athens due to work being done at the Apostolos Nikolaidis Stadium, where Panathinaikos usually play their home matches.
Rangers could benefit from Panathinaikos' temporary move to more spacious but less intimidating Olympic Stadium in Athens
The Greek side are notorious for their boisterous and noisy supporters, especially in European ties
That is good news for Rangers supporters who will receive a healthy share of the tickets in an arena that has 65,000 seats.
It is also good news for Russell Martin and his team who can expect a less intimidating atmosphere in the Olympic Stadium’s wide open spaces.
As former Panathinaikos player Tasos Chatzigiovanis has already indicated, the old-fashioned confines of the Apostolos Nikolaidis would have given the home side a better chance of progressing.
‘I want Panathinaikos to play Rangers at their true home - the Apostolos Nikolaidis Stadium,’ said Chatzigiovanis, who spent six years with the Greek club. ‘You can’t play football at the Olympic Stadium. No-one wants it and it won’t be full.
‘But the Apostolos Nikolaidis is a furnace. No one is getting through if the game was played there.’
