Lowering age & wages behind low fees - Clement

Scott Wright (left) departed Philippe Clement's Rangers during the close season

Philippe Clement says the need to lower Rangers' wage bill and squad age contributed to the rather low intake of transfer funds this summer.

It was reported at Rangers' annual general meeting on Thursday that £810,000 was taken in from the sales of Todd Cantwell, Connor Goldson, Sam Lammers, Robby McCrorie and Scott Wright. Seven others left under freedom of contract. Around £13.4m was spent on acquisitions.

The club had earlier announced a £17.2m loss for the year to June.

"We knew we had to reduce the wages a lot," said Clement before Sunday's Scottish Premiership trip to Ross County.

"Every player - I was the same - you always want to earn more and more and more and not to reduce your wages.

"Some were older, some were maybe earning a lot of money that other teams don't want to pay.

"If you sign a player 28, 29, 30 years old and you give him a contract for two, three years, four years or five years - and some players still had contracts also - you know you don't have added value."

Clement has sought to give academy players more time training with the first team and believes being able to field young players in the Championship would benefit the Scottish game, citing the examples of Belgium, Croatia, the Netherlands and Scandinavian nations.

"They're getting results out of that," said Clement.

"I don't see how that can be stopped then if it's better for Scottish football then everybody would need to stand behind it.

"I hear [Scotland head coach Steve Clarke] speaking. There has to be a drastic turnaround in what's going on with the young players in Scotland."