Charles Green: ‘I should’ve sacked McCoist sooner’

Charles Green has lifted the lid on his turbulent term at Ibrox. Picture: Hemedia

Former Ibrox chief executive Green - who dropped hints of a return to Rangers at the weekend - blamed his focus on the club’s stock market flotation for his failure to sack McCoist.

He told The Sun: “I should have done the club a favour by getting rid of [McCoist] sooner.

“The reason I didn’t was I’d already promised in May 2012 that I would do the Initial Public Offering before the end of the year.

“In October when we went to Stirling and lost, I could’ve sacked him and been made Lord Mayor of Glasgow by the time I got back to the city.

“But I didn’t. The reality was that without a team manager I couldn’t have floated the club.”

And Yorkshireman Green, currently living in France, branded McCoist’s £760,000 wage packet an embarrassment while Rangers were dropping points to Third Division teams.

The stock market flotation in December 2012 raised over £20 million for Rangers but the relationship between McCoist and Green continued to fray.

Green recalled one incident in which McCoist stormed into the former Ibrox chief’s office saying: “You’ve told Dave King you’re going to fire me.”

The 61-year-old said he told McCoist: “I said, ‘That’s not true. I’ve spoken to Dave King but if I was going to sack you, you’d be first to know’.”

And Green, who quit the club in April 2013 after a probe was set up to look into his links with former owner Craig Whyte, said that the club had ‘got rid of me based on rubbish’.

He revealed that the final straw with McCoist was the Ibrox legend’s refusal to sign a letter encouraging supporters to buy season tickets.

After fellow Rangers icon John Brown had pleaded with fans not to buy any tickets, Green went to McCoist for support to try and calm the fanbase down.

But Green claimed McCoist didn’t back the season ticket letter, adding: “We couldn’t send out renewal forms until we knew which league we were going to be in. Then we drafted a letter but Ally refused to sign it.

“He was loyal to Walter Smith but he wasn’t loyal to me - so that was the end of it.”