THE Rangers fans who took to the streets of Glasgow in their thousands last year to celebrate their cinch Premiership victory were convinced the achievement had brought a dark period in their history to an end at long last.
The Ibrox club were, having gone undefeated in the top flight and beaten defending champions Celtic to the Scottish title comfortably, the dominant force in the country once again.
Just as they had been back in 2011 before they suffered they cataclysmic off-field meltdown and dropped down to the Third Division.
Their followers’ joy was unbounded.
Yet, their resounding success, as their annual accounts showed when they were published in November, came at a considerable cost.
Rangers sustained losses of £23.5m preventing their city rivals from completing a record-breaking 10th consecutive league victory.
A major piece of silverware may well have been installed in the trophy room at their Govan ground for the first time in 10 years at the end of the 2020/21 campaign.
The Glasgow giants, though, appeared to many cynics to be in just as much of a mess as they had been when they entered administration way back in the February of 2012.
Had they learned nothing at all from their catastrophic implosion? Was living well outwith their means in a rash pursuit of sporting glory not what caused in their decade of despair in the first place? How could they continue to haemorrhage such huge sums and stay afloat?
Chairman Douglas Park and vice-chairman John Bennett agreeing to cover a projected shortfall of £7.5m and ensure they continued as a going concern did nothing to silence those who were predicting that more difficult times lay ahead.
But there were mitigating circumstances which the prophets of doom overlooked.
Not having any supporters inside their stadium in the 2020/21 campaign due to the Covid-19 pandemic had resulted in income from gate receipts and matchday hospitality falling by £17.5m.
Directors had, too, resisted the temptation to cash in on their prized assets, not least leading scorer Alfredo Morelos, and balance their books because they realised that doing so would damage their chances of landing the Premiership and stopping 10-In-A-Row.
Will the return of sell-out crowds to Ibrox, their remarkable run to the Europa League final last term and the lucrative sales of Nathan Patterson, Joe Aribo and Calvin Bassey see Rangers get back into the black and finally complete their revival? It is looking promising.
Beating Borussia Dortmund, Red Star Belgrade, Braga and RB Leipzig and making it through to Seville in May banked them £15.5m in prize money from UEFA despite their agonising loss to Eintracht Frankfurt in a penalty shoot-out.
However, they also raked in somewhere in the region of £20m from ticket sales and hospitality from the nine home matches they played during their 19 game journey.
On top of that, they will receive their share of a £130m pot of television money, believed to be around £6m, as well as revenue from merchandising, commercial agreements and bonuses from sponsors. In total, they could pocket £50m.
Rangers have banked just shy of £40m this year from the transfers of Patterson to Everton for £12m, Aribo to Southampton for 6m and Bassey to Ajax for £20m.
They have - unlike last term when, aside from the significant fee they gave Juventus to secure the services of Aaron Ramsey on loan, they spent next to nothing strengthening their squad – had to splash out bringing in new players this summer.
Antonio Colak (£1.8m from PAOK), Rabbi Matondo (£2.5 from Schalke) and Ben Davies (£4m from Liverpool), have all eaten into their reserves and more acquisitions will doubtless arrive before the transfer window closes at the end of August.
But motoring magnate Park targeted “profitability at the ETIBDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortisation) level by year ending June 2022” in the annual report and that appears to be an attainable goal given what has happened on and off the park since.
The sales of Patterson, Aribo and Bassey in the past seven months should transform Rangers’ fortunes and place them on a firm financial footing after years of substantial losses being offset by soft loans from their wealthy benefactors - a business model that was declared unsustainable by their majority shareholder Dave King years ago.
Patterson, a product of their youth system, was not a regular starter so accepting the bid from Everton was, as the Americans say, a no brainer regardless of his ability and potential. A tidy sum has been made moving on Aribo, who cost just £300,000 from Charlton three years ago, to Southampton as well.
Bassey was also not guaranteed a place in Steven Gerrard’s side when last season got underway. The progress the versatile 22-year-old made was startling. He became the first name down on Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s team sheet and was named in the Europa League Team of the Season. Getting £20m from Ajax is not bad for a player who was bought from Leicester City for just £230,000 in 2020.
Rangers supporters have been sad to see the talented trio offloaded. But there is a realisation in the stands at Ibrox that breaking even and possibly even posting a profit are every bit as desirable as lifting silverware. They can understand the logic behind developing raw prospects and then making multi-million pound sums moving them on.
Celtic have done exactly that for some time now and managed to rebuild their squad and enjoy consistent domestic success. The performances of new arrivals Antonio Colak, Tom Lawrence, Rabbi Matondo and John Souttar in pre-season suggest they can do likewise. There is genuine excitement about what the new season holds.
Can they qualify for the Champions League group stages for the first time since 2010? It will give them a further lift if they can.
Rangers must, given the heinous corporate vandalism they have been the victims of in years gone by and the hardship they have suffered, be run in a prudent fashion by their custodians so that their long-term stability is safeguarded.
They are on the cusp of achieving self-sustainability.
