‘Massive’ £60m change tipped at Rangers as pundit baffled by Celtic

Rangers winning the title will land them a “massive change of direction” financially with as much as £60million on offer for automatic Champions League qualification, says Peter Martin.

The PLZ Soccer host responded on The Football Show on 19 February after Peter Rough questioned why Celtic had not spent in January to strengthen their flagging side when the prize is so huge at the end of the campaign.

The Light Blues didn’t land the striker many expected but did agree a “huge” £4.5million deal for Mohamed Diomande, and the midfielder scored his first for the club in the 3-0 win at St Johnstone which took them top of the SPFL.

Rough said (19m 45s): “Everybody knows what’s dangling at the end of this season, it’s automatic entry. It’s another, what, forty, fifty sixty million pounds? Why would you mess about with it in January? I know [managers say] January’s not the window, but sometimes you’ve got to take a gamble.”

Martin added: “It’s a £60m roll of the dice, which is not unusual. There’s been a number of years where there’s been a roll of the dice in this strategy and it hasn’t worked out, and this is just another one where ultimately for Rangers £60m is a massive change of direction for Rangers.”

Lee McCulloch then said: “Of course it is, and I think the way they’ve been working they’ve obviously, clearly, not had that sort of money. So if there’s a carrot there to go and get that sort of money you’d better believe they’ll be trying to get it.”

Rangers favourites for Champions League cash prize?

One way or another the Gers have managed to spend decent money over the past two transfer windows, but it took the arrival of Philippe Clement to apparently get good value for it.

The summer spend on the likes of Sam Lammers and Jose Cifuentes has already proven a waste after the pair were shipped out last month, while the jury remains out to an extent on Cyriel Dessers and Danilo.