calscot 0 Posted May 18, 2007 Share Posted May 18, 2007 This season possible first chioce team if all fully fit: MacGregor - free Hutton - free Weir - free Ehiogu - free Smith - free Burke - Free Ferguson - effectively free Hemdani - free Adam - free Prso - free Boyd - 400K ------------- Total - 400K -------------- This season possible 2nd team: Klos - 700K Murray - Free Svensson - 650K Webster - 650K Papac - 1M Novo - 450K Thomson - 2M Rae - 250K Sionko - Free Buffel - 2.3M Sebo - 1.8M ------------ Total - 9.8M ------------ 2nd team cost about 25 times more than the first! Team lately: MacGregor - free Hutton - free Weir - free Ehiogu - free Papac - 1M Novo - 450K Ferguson - effectively free Thomson - 2M Hemdani - free Adam - free Boyd - 400K ------------ Total - 3.85M ------------ Quite a cheap team to have been doing so well lately... But it shows we definitely have to spend to get some quality. Next season? MacGregor - free Hutton - free Weir - free Webster - 650k Papac - 1M Ferguson - effectively free Thomson - 2M Hemdani - free McCulloch - 1.25M Darcheville - free Boyd - 400K ------------ Total - 5.3M ------------ 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bmck 117 Posted May 18, 2007 Share Posted May 18, 2007 calscot, if you pad that out a bit i think it would make a great article for the main site. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
buster 0 Posted May 18, 2007 Share Posted May 18, 2007 papac was more like 450,000 pedantic but accurate is best loyal 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super_Ally 0 Posted May 18, 2007 Share Posted May 18, 2007 Next seasons team should include Smith - free imo and not Papac. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
calscot 0 Posted May 18, 2007 Author Share Posted May 18, 2007 Barry, I've tried to rise to the challenge... What about this?: There have been many jokes lately about Rangers having seemingly picked up Celtic's old biscuit tin from some car boot sale. I usually defend against this by highlighting that while Rangers are not spending outrageously like they did under Advocaat, they have still been spending steadily over the last five years at a rate far higher than Celtic's dark, parsimonious era, and then not that much below the other half of the Old firm in their current sunnier climes. Celtic fans gleefully highlight that last year they bought Jan Venegoor of Hessalink and Graveson for a total of 7.5M (they think they are loaded) while forgetting that they brought in about 6M for Petrov to pay for most of it. Rangers similarly spent 8M after selling Boumsong a couple of years back. They also seem to forget that Rangers forked out 650K on Svensson, 1M on Papac, 2M on Thomson, and 1.8M on Sebo in the same period, which all adds up to about 5.5M. I think Murray would have to have a very large biscuit tin to hold that sort of wonga and it's only a few million less than Celtic spent in one year. This isn't too bad considering a couple of multi-million pound offers fell through for McCulloch and Brown. However, with Chic Youngââ?¬â?¢s confident prediction of Scott Brown going to Rangers for 3M, instead morphing into a transfer to Celtic for 4.4M, questions about spending power have started to hit home. When you start to tot up the transfer cost of a possible Rangers first team this season it starts to take on a certain scary look. If all players are fully fit and playing well a feasible first choice team could be: MacGregor - free Hutton - free Weir - free Ehiogu - free Smith - free Burke - Free Ferguson - effectively free Hemdani - free Adam - free Prso - free Boyd - 400K ------------- Total - 400K -------------- Now while that team recently seems capable of matching Celticââ?¬â?¢s first choice under the guidance of Walter Smith, it does have a very jammy dodger look about it. A whole team for 400K sounds like a bargain, but also smells of lack of ambition from the Rangers chairman who seems to prefer Bourbons to Bendix. So what has snaffled up that ââ?¬Å?reasonable spendingââ?¬Â I talked about, while leaving a team of crumbs? Well a quick look at a potential second choice team from the squad could look like this: Klos - 700K Murray - Free Svensson - 650K Webster - 650K Papac - 1M Novo - 450K Thomson - 2M Rae - 250K Sionko - Free Buffel - 2.3M Sebo - 1.8M ------------ Total - 9.8M ------------ That second team cost almost 25 times as much as the first choice! Now obviously Iââ?¬â?¢ve let sensationalism possibly affect a choice or two, although I say the team is reasonably justified. So humour me for the sake of argument, as the point is, that a large proportion of the money has seems to have been spent on players who donââ?¬â?¢t quite make the first team ahead of cheaper options. To me that is firstly indicative of poor spending by the previous two managers and very poor value for money. Add to that the costly drain to resources of buying players or signing Bosmans with a decent signing on fee, and then paying them off for a fat fee later, and you have a bit of a financial disaster area. Now you have to ask if this is purely bad choices and research by the managers, or is it because they are forced to fight for scraps at the custard cream end of the market and have to take risks at the sake of hoping to turn up a penguin on the cheap In that case the chairman starts to look a bit guilty of sending his managers to the pound store and expecting them to come up with quality goods. The team lately has been of a slightly more costly nature due to Stevie Smithââ?¬â?¢s injury, Burkeââ?¬â?¢s lack of progress to top form since his latest malaise, at the same time as a Novo revival, and also Thomsonââ?¬â?¢s improvement to claim a first pick: MacGregor - free Hutton - free Weir - free Ehiogu - free Papac - 1M Novo - 450K Thomson - 2M Hemdani - free Adam - free Ferguson - effectively free Boyd - 400K ---------------- Total - 3.85M ---------------- Thatââ?¬â?¢s actually quite a cheap team to have been doing so well lately, effectively the best team in the league under Walter Smith, quite a miracle really. But it does not give you confidence the returning manager has been given the tools to challenge a Celtic team shopping at Harrods to replace their retiring midfield. It definitely shows that Sir David Murray has to provide more significant sums to allow his manager to shop in the same street as his main rival. So what does it look like for the start of next season? Well the rumours are that Smith has up to Ã?£8M to spend (probably relying on the sale of Buffel, Sionko, Svensson and Sebo for say 3M in total) and so speculation is all over the place. Broadfoot, Gow and Darcheville have all signed for free which although these days does not mean they are worthless, itââ?¬â?¢s hardly throwing the gauntlet down. So far the most likely signings with fees seem to be Webster and McCulloch. That gives the team the following look: MacGregor - free Hutton - free Weir - free Webster - 650k Papac - 1M Ferguson - effectively free Thomson - 2M Hemdani - free McCulloch - 1.25M Darcheville - free Boyd - 400K --------------- Total - 5.3M --------------- Not much of an improvement with the likes of the following on the bench: Robinson - free Ehiogu ââ?¬â?? free Broadfoot - free Murray ââ?¬â?? free Burke ââ?¬â?? free Novo ââ?¬â?? 450K Gow ââ?¬â?? free Thatââ?¬â?¢s a whole match day squad which costs about 60% as much as Celticââ?¬â?¢s JVOH and Brown. That does not sound good. So that extra 6M has to be spent, but itââ?¬â?¢s hard to see how that will get more than one or two quality players. Rangers fans now realise that the club cannot just spend willy nilly like Mrs Becks with her Galaxy Credit Card. In fact the Becks could probably personally afford a more expensive team. But ââ?¬Å?manageableââ?¬Â debt is not always a bad thing and companies do have to spend themselves out of a slump in order to achieve success which raises their income to match their competitors. Walter needs about 8M every year for a few years so that he can build a squad of reasonable quality while buying what he really needs off the premium shelf instead of looking for what might just do in the bargain bin or items almost past their sell by date. The debt may have to rise to achieve this but as long as the board set a maximum percentage of turnover for that debt, the club will not have the melt down it had 5 years ago. Progress every year in the Champions League is vital and even if you can win leagues with the right kids, itââ?¬â?¢s still hardly worth turning up against Europeââ?¬â?¢s elite with a bunch of freebies ââ?¬â?? and you still have to qualify. Itââ?¬â?¢s time for Sir David Murray to show that heââ?¬â?¢s not comfortable being a half man, half biscuitââ?¬Â¦ 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon 0 Posted May 18, 2007 Share Posted May 18, 2007 Excellent stuff Calscot...... 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
stewarty 1,876 Posted May 18, 2007 Share Posted May 18, 2007 Certainly puts a few things in perspective. SDM - pull the finger out! 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frankie 8,136 Posted May 18, 2007 Share Posted May 18, 2007 Cheers for that Cal... Will save it for early next week then get it on the main site and Newsnow - certainly some interesting and valid points. Really delighted at everyone taking part in submitting stuff to the main site. It's really worthwhile as so many of you post the kind of sensible stuff that should be read by a wider audience. If anyone has any ideas for articles but is a bit shy or unsure about publishing them, give me a shout by pm. We can use different author names for the main site if necessary. KUTGW folks! 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
fraser54 0 Posted May 19, 2007 Share Posted May 19, 2007 Nice one mate just shows you that the team is worth pennies compared to Celtics pounds but i am happpy with that as long if we mount a challenge against Celtic. People complain about youngsters not getting a chance but they have and thats why they are free. Also the bosman market these days you can get god players for free as well. But this shows that not alot of money is getting spent and we need a few big transfers. Not at this moment in time though as alot of positions need filled up, so we will be looking at players costing 1m-3m. In a few years once we have good cover then we might be looking at big transfers 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
buster 0 Posted May 19, 2007 Share Posted May 19, 2007 well done Calsott ! IMO to make it complete and more informative about the financial situation you would have to include wages though. Eg. Ferguson may be "effectively free" but his wages are high. Other frees such as Hemdani, Darcheville and Ugo won�´t be paid peanuts either. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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