Can we Get to the ‘Level’ of Benfica? If so How?

Benfica have 233,228 members paying a monthly contribution. They are a genuinely huge club.
Considering what it costs for Prime, Netflix, Disney+, Sky Sports and BT sport vs how passionately I feel about Rangers, I’d happily pay £10 to Rangers in a scheme like that.

I’m sure many more would too.
 
The income that Celtic generated in Rodgers' first season is probably close to the glass ceiling of what can be earned in Scotland, I think it's £30-£40m more than what we've been making. If you look at it from a pure financial muscle perspective then it's probably impossible for us to get anywhere near them.

On the flipside, when you look at what we've created with about £30m over three seasons, it's hard not to think that we could quite easily hit that level with smart spending.

Roofe cost £3.5m, our entire range of midfield options cost £350k and we've got the best defensive record in European football with about £8m total spent on all of our CB's.

Back to back UCL qualifications could see his hit a height we may never have seen before.
 
Along with scouting we need our youth department to start producing players for the 1st team squad imo. If we can win the league this season that would really help as it would release so much pressure of the desperation for success that it would be a better environment to blood young players.
 
If we played in the EPL, we’d soon dwarf Benfica.

As it stands, playing in the backwater that is Scotland makes everything a massive uphill battle.
We can see the huge improvement in standard after a circa £15 million spend, imagine how good we could become with a minimum income of £100 million guaranteed each season.
 
I think we're going in the right direction. Remember only a few years ago we were being plundered by spivs so the progress on and off the park since then has to be applauded.

We are now able to reject £16M bids for our players and new signings like Roofe, Itten, Zungu etc can be integrated to the squad slowly due to the high squad quality.

The youth academy is also in a good place but we have that development gap from youth team to first team. The B Team project is helping bridge that but it isn't enough. Benfica have their B-Team playing in the 2nd tier. Boy they brought on last night Goncalo Ramos has played for their B-Team this season.

How we continue to progress and compete at European level is a concern when Gerrard and his team leave as it is only a matter of time before they get some serious offers.
 
To get to that level we need to get lucky in terms of a few players that go for serious, serious cash. Kamara for 25m x 5 different players. We would need automatic qualification for CL group stages and the odd last 16 or last 8 trip.
On top of that we would need continual youth development progress. I’m not talking with token bench gestures I am talking first team regulars and guys who can move on for serious cash.

its possible for us to have a run of seasons like Benfica but I don’t think it’s really a sustainable target for us. They are massive. We are where we are in terms of Leagues in a country with a population of 5m. That’s the biggest hindrance for us.
 
Ronaldo is Portuguese. Benfica have sold Ruben Dias and Joao Felix for £175m in the last 2 seasons. Both are Portuguese. This is part of why I ask? Could it ever be achieved or is it simply pie in the sky?
It’s obvious Portugal are still producing brilliant young players, Scotland simply aren’t, and never will the way the game is run here. The SFA and SPFL are a farce, and clubs only have self interest at heart.
 
Of course we can, it will just take time.

Here are just a few things off the top of my head.

My Gers currently sits at around 20k members, there is no reason why schemes like this shouldn't be expanded in the future. I honestly believe that 100K members is an achievable goal within the next 5 years if the scheme is properly promoted and the benefits are clear for all to see.

Overseas revenue is another factor we should consider. The Indian TV deal sets the benchmark for what we should be doing when it comes to dealing with selling our rights abroad. I would like to see us do the same in other markets when we can.

Stadium capacity and corporate facilities. This is an expensive venture, but it is also an easy win. The more seats and corporate facilities you have, the more income you will receive.
 
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I am not talking on the pitch, over 1 or 2 games, as we have seen this is easily accomplished.

There is a vast financial gulf when you look at the clubs’ turnovers, transfer fees paid and received and consistency in Europe.

Can we get ourselves to their level off the park? Can scouting and development get us there? Are we simply held back too much in Scotland?

What say you?
Champions league football, developing players like Hagi, Kent, Tavernier and selling them on.
 
I am not talking on the pitch, over 1 or 2 games, as we have seen this is easily accomplished.

There is a vast financial gulf when you look at the clubs’ turnovers, transfermoneu fees paid and received and consistency in Europe.

Can we get ourselves to their level off the park? Can scouting and development get us there? Are we simply held back too much in Scotland?

What say you?
Money
 
Benfica spend about 10 million Euros per year on their youth set up but they have the big advantage over us in being able to negotiate their own tv deal so that brings them in over 40 million euros alone.
 
We had two great chance of beating Benfica in a fortnight, but in the wider European football competition context. It's difficult to to keep up that level of standard every season within the financial constraints of the SPFL. We need to dominate our domestic competitions and use what we make to spend wisely on player acquisition's, to continue to improve in Europe.
 
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