Today saw the arrival of our new Brazilian striker, Danilo. Just last week I was discussing his potential signing in the This Is Ibrox group chat on Whatsapp and Craig, one of our regular hosts made a great point. At a fee rumoured to be in the region of €6m and wages reported to be around the £39k p/week mark, there is going to be an awful lot of expectation from the fan base.
Danilo will cost around €6m, making him Rangers second highest outlay in over a decade
It got me thinking that this would not only apply to Danilo but to Dessers as well with a fee around €5m being spent to secure his services. Two strikers at €11m outlay is an absolutely massive outlay for any SPFL club, including our eastern neighbours. After the euphoria of bringing these guys in calms down people will start to consider the amounts paid and will expect a goal filled season.
Although €6m is a significant fee it pales in comparison to Rangers record outlay of £12m. For those not old enough to remember this was in the David Murray heydays when we were buying up some of the top talent in the EPL, as well as around the world. The signing was Norwegian striker, Tore Andre Flo, who joined from Chelsea in the 2000/2001 season. Flo went on to provide 33G and 6A over 4694 mins which equates to a goal involvement every 119mins. He also grabbed 3 goals in 4 UCL games, achieving a goal involvement ever 120mins.
To put Flo’s record into perspective Morelos goal involvement stats are 103mins domestically and 105mins in the UEL. It’s important to consider the standard of the non Old Firm teams is far lower than it was in Flo’s days and we played in a lower European competition, including qualifiers. In short Morelos is marginally better over a longer time period and much easier competition.
As Flo’s time came to an end in Glasgow he was dubbed by many as a flop, despite having a decent record as previously illustrated. In retrospect it wasn’t that he was a flop, so much as he didn’t live up to his significant price tag. Put simply people expected far more than decent for the sum we paid.
Coming to present time, 23 years later and Flo remains our biggest fee paid. Around that time we signed many top players with fees to match. Names like Michael Ball, Arteta, Numan, Gio van Bronckhorst, Ferguson and Konterman were common place but the latest of those was Ferguson as we paid Blackbun Rovers €7.25m in the 2004/2005 window. Since then there have been hundreds of signing but none for anything close to those fees until we signed Ryan Kent for €7.2m in the 2019/2020 window.
Kent was a curious case as we expected big things but also acknowledged he contributed in other ways than just goals and assists.Ultimately as much as Kent did lots of good things there was a burden of expectation on him that he never quite met in many fans eyes.
Ryan Kent and his iconic celebration at Celtic Park
If you exclude Kent then Danilo represents our most significant outlay since Konterman in 2004. The exact same can be said about Cyriel Dessers, until Danilo is confirmed. Dessers also had an extra level of pressure in that we aren’t likely to make a major profit on him due to his age. Dessers is the very definition of a “here and now” signing. Danilo is likely to make us some profit, assuming he does well but in both cases they have to start as they mean to go on.
Dessers - The “here and now” signing of the window
It was often said over the last few seasons that we struggled to put games to bed, we failed to kill off teams on a regular basis. Beale got his players this summer but now fans will be demanding we do both after spending over €10m on two attackers, before you add in the €3.5m for Lammers. I’m really looking forward to the season kicking off in just a few weeks but I also have high expectations!
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