Utrecht admit they can’t afford to sign Rangers’ Sam Lammers

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Ibrox Noise

·20 May 2024

Utrecht admit they can’t afford to sign Rangers’ Sam Lammers

Utrecht have confirmed they will do everything they can to secure Sam Lammers permanently, but they will have major issues being able to afford him, after Technical Director Jordy Zuidam spoke on ESPN’s Dutch Football network to admit his salary was beyond them.

Making the appearance on the show, the Dutch club’s Sporting Chief said on Lammers:

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“Obviously, it’s clear Sam is above our salary cap. But we found a model with Rangers that was manageable for us. We now have to find a way with Sam and his club to keep him. We are fully committed to signing Sam permanently. He is a very important member of our team. We did everything we could to bring him here on loan and we will do everything possible to bring him here on a permanent deal. We have spoken to him several times and he is really a guy who is obsessed with football. He has said that he wants to finish the season, but is definitely considering it. Apart from the sporting thing, there is more to it, and now the question is: can that come together? We will look for all possibilities to keep him. I hope that will be enough.”

This isn’t the best news for Rangers – despite Lammers’ superb form with Utrecht, and despite how desperate they are to keep him, Rangers do not want to sell him for the numbers Utrecht are likely hoping for.

Furthermore his wage by Rangers standards of around £20,000 a week might be doable in Govan, but Utrecht wage structure is nowhere near this, with most of their owned players at around £6,000 tops, and only their on-loan players earning any more, with Utrecht taking on only tiny portions of those weekly salaries.

So for Utrecht to get him permanently Sam Lammers would have to accept his wage being at least halved, and he’s not going to do that because he’s been in the wage ballpark of around £20K+ for about 5 years since leaving PSV and he’d never go down circa £10,000.

So in fact, unless another Dutch club, or any club, has the financial muscle to sign him permanently, at both his wages and the transfer fee, Lammers is going to end up back at Rangers this summer.

Unless, that is, his love of Holland and his current club outweighs his bank balance and he sticks at it for a much lower salary.

But then, who really would?