Panathinaikos has come too early for Rangers, but we need the Champions League desperately | OneFootball

While many Rangers fans believe Panathinaikos has come far too early for Russell Martin, and in reality it has, nevertheless qualifying for the League phase of the Champions League is still absolutely critical.

The cash on offer in the tournament completely dwarfs what the Europa League or Conference League can give, with a baseline of £35M simply for being there, filthy lucre which excludes gate receipts and matchday revenue, not to mention draw and win cash.

The end cash, simply for qualifying for the League phase and being there and maybe getting a win and a draw could approach £50M, and that’s cash Rangers are aching for.

Forget new owners, FFP stops them just buying players willy-nilly, and Rangers are subject to the same spending restrictions we always were.

Hence the sales of Hamza, Nico and Dessers were financially rather important, not to mention Diomande.

But they don’t appear to be happening any time soon and we can’t rely on it – we have to earn our cash, and UCL is the way to the big numbers.

But there is more of a snowball’s chance in hell than this League One/Championship-cobbed Rangers hurting Panathinaikos, even if last season we managed a good result v their Greek rivals Olympiakos.

No, this whole setup is filled with substandard players bought at high price, with substandard manager who has never managed at this level before, so the chance of that lot getting any change out of the Greek side appears very, very low.

But if the impossible happens, and Martin bypasses that and the next two rounds, qualifying for the League phase, Rangers will get their hand on desperately-needed cash.

The only bonus is Celtic have to go through qualification too, meaning if/when they fail, they will not get their £50M bonus this season, unlike recent campaigns which Rangers gifted them it.

Means they don’t slip further away – we imagine their spending this summer is probably a bit lower with that in mind.

But it’s about us – and boy do we need that £50M.