Rangers' record signing came a quarter of a century ago, when Tore André Flo was recruited from Chelsea in the summer of 2000 for a whopping £12 million.
Since then, the club's highest outlay on a single player came on deadline day in 2019, with Ryan Kent joining from Liverpool for £7.5 million.
Over recent years, we've watched our Old Firm rivals Celtic flex their financial muscle, splashing out on players like Odsonne Édouard (£9m), Arne Engels (£11m), and Adam Idah (£9m), while Rangers have often been forced to shop in the bargain bin, operating with a leaner transfer budget and more caution in the market.
That may be changing.
With our new ownership group, backed by the San Francisco 49ers, Rangers are now in a stronger financial position than they’ve been in over a decade. And that is beginning to show.
This summer, the club has been heavily linked with a significant £10 million move for Crystal Palace and England U21 winger Jesurun Rak-Sakyi.
The 22-year-old has made just ten appearances for the Eagles, but has excelled during loan spells, first in League One with Charlton Athletic, where he was named Player of the Year in 2023, and more recently in the Championship with Sheffield United, where he impressed at a higher level.
Rangers reportedly had an initial loan-to-buy offer rejected this week, a deal that included an obligation to purchase up to £10 million.
Palace are believed to be seeking a straight sale, and with other interested parties such as Wolves and Russell Martin’s former club Southampton in the mix, a bidding war could be on the horizon.
Still, the key takeaway is not whether Rangers get Rak-Sakyi, though he would be a hugely exciting addition, but rather the fact that the club is willing and able to commit to a deal of this magnitude in the first place.
This willingness to spend serious money is a genuine statement of intent, from both the club and the new ownership.
It sends a clear message that Rangers are no longer content to trail Celtic either on the park or off it. The ambition is back, and it’s being backed by real investment.
Russell Martin addressed the rumours in an interview with Sky Sports, saying:
"He is a player I liked at Southampton, we tried to take him there and it didn't quite happen.
“He is a player I liked, and I think the recruitment staff liked. How far that has gone, I'm not too sure.
“He is a really good player. We look at all sorts of different profiles that we think can help the team.
“But it doesn't have to be just one sort of profile. Players are very different.
“We just need the ones with the right mentality who are desperate to come here, and we’ll see where we are in four weeks’ time.”
It’s rare to hear a Rangers manager speak so directly about a transfer target, and that suggests significant positive movement behind the scenes.
A spanner in the works could be that Rak-Sakyi went off injured in Palace's 3-0 friendly win over Crawley on Friday night, however it is expected his early exit was just a precautionary measure.
Even if any financial commitment is deferred until next summer, the intent is clear: this is a club ready to act boldly again, but this time, it is actually within our means.
The belief, vision and ambition are all aligned, from the boardroom to the recruitment team to the manager’s office.
Rangers are not just talking about progress. They're putting their money where their mouth is.