Soothing while saving

A working definition of a smart move is one that achieves several things at once.

It is fair to say that a few days ago, many in the Ibrox klanbase were in a bad place.

Insert your own jokes here.

Firstly, they realised that the American owners were sticking with Herr Röhl.

After all, it’s about the Dollars.

Always the Dollars.

Now, pause for a second and think if there was an emotionally committed Sevco High Command in the Blue Room.

Almost certainly, they would have punished the likeable young German for the post-split collapse and sacked him.

After all, that’s what the supporters wanted.

This is an essential truth that perhaps hasn’t fully landed with the Ibrox klanabse: the decade of emotional ownership is over.

The dignified dispensation that followed the Off-Licence Putsch is gone.

Then there was the small matter of finishing THIRD with the second-highest budget.

Moreover, that spending was substantially higher than that of the club that finished in their usual position of second behind Celtic.

As regular readers will know, the plan hatched in the Delaware Triangle to bring down wage costs at the basket of assets and sell some players.

The move for Shankland can do both, especially if Youssef  Chermiti can be sold.

Today I reached out to a well-placed source.

He IS in a position to know the nuts and bolts of the Shankland deal.

Make of it what you will, but this is what I was sent:

Firstly, of course, Sevco’s low-calorie cousins get zip out of the deal.

A fact that didn’t go down well on one Maroon message board.

 

 

 

I think it’s always upsetting when families can’t get along.

I’m told that there’s a £1.3m signing-on fee (including agents’ fees) payable in two tranches on August 1st of each year (1/8/26 & 1/8/27).

My information is that he is now being remunerated at double what he was getting at the John Wilson Arena.

There are also goal bonus milestones he is likely to achieve.

If the frontman from the Azores is sold and the ex-Hearts man is his like-for-like replacement, it represents a substantial saving on wages alone.

This will please the FSR scrutineers in Nyon.

As regular readers will know, I posited that it would be a summer of, where possible, free agents replacing players sold at Sevco.

Of course, none of that matters a jot to the Ibrox klanbase if the ethnic quotient is increased at the stadium John Brown played for.

 

The Shankland deal is, partly, another episode of Operation Soothe.

Remember that, and the available data will make more sense.