If we go down....

[Martinmalta]

I assume we will have an exodus of players leaving. Start with the players on loan....Zarate, Krancjar, Isla and Vargas. BZ, SWP, Hoilett, Hill, Rio, Dunne, Barton and Traore will come to the end of the their contracts and I just wonder how many will be offered new deals. Then there is the big heartache of all.....seeing the likes of Austin, Fer, Sandro and maybe Caulker all leaving the club for the Premier. That's nearly 16 players! We will then build around Ned, Green, Yun, Henry, Phillips (if he is not tempted as well). That leaves who ever is in charge to bring the youngsters in. Furlong, Doughty, Kpekawa, Petrasso, Andrade, Sandles-White, Sutherland, Reece.....there's quite a few, however, do we stand any chance of promotion or will we struggle heavily?

[surrey_hoop]

I assume we will have an exodus of players leaving. Start with the players on loan....Zarate, Krancjar, Isla and Vargas. BZ, SWP, Hoilett, Hill, Rio, Dunne, Barton and Traore will come to the end of the their contracts and I just wonder how many will be offered new deals. Then there is the big heartache of all.....seeing the likes of Austin, Fer, Sandro and maybe Caulker all leaving the club for the Premier. That's nearly 16 players! We will then build around Ned, Green, Yun, Henry, Phillips (if he is not tempted as well). That leaves who ever is in charge to bring the youngsters in. Furlong, Doughty, Kpekawa, Petrasso, Andrade, Sandles-White, Sutherland, Reece.....there's quite a few, however, do we stand any chance of promotion or will we struggle heavily?

How many of those players truly deserve new contracts? Zarate, Isla and Vargas aren't our players, and for me none of the others (for various reasons) deserve contract renewals. Our wage bill will certainly be slashed beyond recognition. Imagine being in a position (i.e. staying in the PL) where we were almost forced to give a lot of those players new contracts, simply to make the numbers up. Looking at the players listed, I would guess that thats about 450k a WEEK we'd be saving in wages. That's £14million a season.

As regards selling the players you mentioned - I say sell them in the summer. Austin will never be worth more as a Rangers player than he will be this year, we'll make 300-400% profit on him without question. For me Fer will've held his value, so that's another £7million. We'll make loses on Sandro and Caulker, but we'll still get £10million for the pair. That's £30million in sales. Invest that in young players from the Championship or even Leagues 1 and 2, integrate them with our own youth players, and we'll be well on our way to realizing TF's vision for the club.....and our accounts will look outstandingly good.

Will we claim promotion at the first time of asking with the youngsters listed? Barring a miracle, no. But the view at the club can no longer be a short term one, panicking from one transfer window to the next. Of course staying in the PL is th aim, and we may yet still achieve it. Handled correctly though, not only could we mitigate the losses incurred from relegation, but we could actually use them to our benefit.