Coming just days after some fans had committed to spending up to £180 on a three-match package the last thing Rangers supporters wanted to hear from their manager was that they couldn’t compete at Champions League level. But that was exactly what Giovanni van Bronckhorst told them following the 4-0 thumping by Ajax in the opening Group A fixture.
With five games left in the campaign, supporters will be hoping for a better showing in future games – particularly those ones at Ibrox Stadium they have paid good money for. Van Bronckhorst’s assessment came just 24 hours after Dinamo Zagreb had stunned Premier League big spenders Chelsea so for many the manager’s claim “hundreds of millions” are needed to compete with the cream of the continent didn’t add up. There are many other examples in the competition, including Celtic’s famous win over Barcelona and Moldovan minnows Sheriff Tiraspol stunning Real Madrid in their own backyard last season. Yes, the gulf between the haves and the have-nots has grown and made life more difficult for sides outside of the so-called Big Five nations.
But still. Rangers fans were looking for more to be invested in their squad during the summer after generating around £50million from a 19-game run to the Europa League Final last season and raking in a record sale fee rising to £20m for Calvin Bassey and Joe Aribo leaving for around half of that and then you throw in the potential to make £30million from Champions League group stage qualification for the first time in 12 years. In total, observers have estimated around £110m has been earned in the past year.
