ROSS WILSON knows where the glass ceiling is for Rangers in financial terms. It is up to the Ibrox squad if they want to break through that elsewhere.
The budget that the Light Blues board set and that Wilson oversees will be utilised by manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst and he must get the maximum bang for his buck.
It is a balancing act between rewarding players for their efforts and keeping tight control on the finances, between attracting key men to the club and ensuring harmony within the champions’ dressing room.
Pivotal decisions will have to be made in the coming weeks and months at Ibrox. The situation won’t stress Rangers’ sporting director, however, after he addressed contract issues at the Annual General Meeting on Tuesday morning.
“I get asked about this all the time,” Wilson said. “I get that player contracts is a hot topic as it’s something people are excited about.
“Generally we’re really, really relaxed about where we are with our player contracts.
“In terms of player contracts that will expire this season, there are probably three groups I’d look at.
“One, there’s the group of our older players and we always review them towards the end of the existing season. And this season will be no different.
“That’s sensible both for us and the players. We’ll take a view of there those players are at, at that moment in time.
“The easier category is anybody we’d say is just not contributing at all. Where a contract is finishing it’s safe to say those players will depart at the end of their time here.
“Then thirdly, there is the group of players whose contracts are up and they’re playing regularly for us.”
It is that third category that is the most contentious, and the most important, for Rangers right now and that is where Connor Goldson sits at present.
Steven Gerrard spoke positively about the situation at the start of the campaign but Goldson has yet to put pen-to-paper. The longer the impasse continues, the more likely it is he will leave for free next summer.
“We have a clear contract model here and a clear wage structure,” Wilson added as he declined the opportunity to name names but made his point clear. “Anybody that signs a contract with Rangers, I can assure you, they will sign a contract within that structure.
“We wouldn’t be prepared to break that structure at all because it’s important to us that we have a prudent way of working.
“However, it’s also fair to say that players can take their own view and can take their own time. And if they want a contract which is in excess of that model then that’s also okay for them to take that view.
“We’re very relaxed about that. We take a view on every contract on its own merits, providing it sits within our model.
“But what I would also say, because I have seen a lot said about this, is that I work with the group of players every day. I see them every single day and it wouldn’t be fair on any player to look at his commitment and their focus.
“Because this group of players, every single day, certainly across the last year and a bit, their focus, commitment and concentration to do well for Rangers has been absolutely clear to me.
“So irrespective of a player’s contract status I don’t think it’s fair to label that at them. But as a general principle, we’re really, really comfortable with where we’re at with all our player contracts.”
It is, of course, Van Bronckhorst that Wilson will need to wheel and deal on behalf of now following his appointment as Gerrard’s successor last week.
The loss of Gerrard could have been a significant blow to Rangers. Time will tell if Wilson’s succession planning has paid off or not as the champions aim to defend their Premiership title.
Wilson said: “How I see my role here is that I need to lead our football department every single day.
“I understand that the fans and media will always look to player trading and who we buy and who we sell. That’s understandable because that’s the exciting bit.
“But one of the big things that I see as really important to my role here is making sure that we build a really strong and sustainable Rangers. A reality modern Rangers football department.
“A department that can compete at Premier League level down south, because I know that looks like from my time down there. And making sure we’re as strong as we can possible be on every single front.
“A big part of that is making sure we have a clear succession plan in place for key employees.
“There is no more key employee in the football department than our first team manager and I should go on record again to thank our former manager, Steven Gerrard, for the work he did throughout the last three and a half years. I thoroughly enjoyed working with him and his team.
“But the downside was that as Steven was being really successful, I became more and more aware that we had to have a clear succession plan because there were going to be other clubs trying to tempt him back down south. I thank Steven for all the work he did for us but I had to have an eye on what was next for Rangers.”
There is no doubt that Gerrard left Rangers in a far better state than he found them and his work, both on and off the park, over three-and-a-half seasons has helped restore the club and the team to something resembling their former glories.
The challenge now at Ibrox is to ensure that 55 becomes 56 at the first attempt. In Van Bronckhorst, Wilson is confident he has just the man for the job after a quickfire turnaround in the dugout.
“Clearly Giovanni van Bronckhorst was right at the forefront of my thoughts for a long, long time,” Wilson continued. “There was a lot of work done over the last few years to make sure we were looking to the future and had the profile of what a Rangers manager looks like now, which is different to what that profile looked like three and a half years ago.
“And definitely five or six years ago. We want to be a modern, open-minded club that embraces modern methods and modern techniques.
“The process to appoint Gio started a long time ago. We wanted to make sure we knew what that market looked like. It all moved quickly, between the Thursday and Tuesday.
“We wanted not only the right manager but the right person who gets what this club is all about. And we’re absolutely delighted to have appointed Giovanni.”
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