Kieran Maguire shares Rangers revenue verdict with English Premier League comparison.
With so many resources available, the question of where Rangers and Celtic might finish in the Premier League has been addressed time and time again. Kieran Maguire has provided a fresh assessment on the matter.
The football finance specialist found that the Scottish powerhouses lag behind Manchester United and Arsenal when comparing their matchday earnings to the Big Six Premier League clubs.
To give them some perspective on what they could have done with Premier League money, he also revealed that Rangers had the second-highest revenue in the UK during the inaugural Premier League season.
Speaking on The Price Of Football podcast [22 January], Maguire shared: “If we go back to the very first season of the Premier League, Rangers had the second-highest level of revenue of any club in the U.K. So apart from Manchester United, they earned more money than Arsenal, Liverpool and so on.
“If we take a look at Celtic in that season, their revenues were higher than those of both Chelsea and Manchester City who have been the most successful clubs over the last couple of years or so – with Liverpool of course.
“If we look at the position now, Celtic are making just short of £50million per year from matchday income, Rangers are making around £40million. That includes European income. Where does that put them compared to the Big Six? It puts them a wee bit behind.
“The matchday income is significantly behind that of Manchester United, Arsenal, Spurs and Liverpool, it’s a little bit behind Chelsea and mid-way behind Manchester City, so those clubs [Rangers and Celtic] would be similar to West Ham and Newcastle – the top end of the other 14 in terms of their revenue.
“I refer to some of our secret chief executives and friends in the English game to say what are the chances of this ever taking place, and those chances are zero, or close to zero. From the perspective of those Big Six clubs, they don’t want competition.”
All hypotheticals, but the result would be clear
There is almost no doubt that, if Rangers and Celtic were in the Premier League, with Premier League income, they would be challenging for a top-four place.
If this deal goes through, which seems more and more likely, Philippe Clement will have added Fabio Silva, a new attacker, and a new central midfielder to his side.
Although a left-back will eventually be required, an all-out striker must currently take precedence during the last week and a half of the transfer window.
If you could manage that, the Light Blues would have had an incredible window.
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