Rangers ask McCoist to agree to end his contract

Paul Murray revealed attempts have already been made to strike a deal with McCoist. Picture: TSPL

McCoist has been on gardening leave since 21 December, a week after he tendered his resignation as manager.

The 52-year-old continues to earn £62,500 a month from Rangers as part of his 12-month rolling contract which will not expire until December this year.

It has become a source of disquiet among some Rangers supporters during a period when the club have continued to operate in fragile financial circumstances.

Rangers chairman-elect King is dismissive of any suggestion McCoist’s standing at the club, where he was one of their most decorated players and the leading goalscorer of all time, could be damaged by the situation. “Ally is perfectly within his rights and there is no conflict between Ally and the board,” said King.

“Ally is an absolute icon and legend at Rangers and I would be very surprised and disappointed if any of the discussions we had with him resulted in any change to that status, or if he felt in any way unwelcome, because we will make him feel extremely welcome when he comes back to the club.

“To me, the situation has been resolved with Ally. The fact is that Ally is entitled to his money. That was the deal – so I don’t think there is any situation to be resolved.

“The question is, can one ask him to accommodate the club? He doesn’t have an obligation, he doesn’t owe anything to the club.

“It’s a question of whether the club can convince him that under the new regime, so to speak, he should give some satisfaction.

“But Ally is quite within his rights to be doing what he is doing. There is no situation to be resolved. We are asking him to do us a favour. The club owes Ally as much as he owes them in terms of the satisfaction he has given fans over the years.

“But the fact is he has a contract, it was committed to and the club must respect contracts. It is up to the club to come and maybe satisfy him or him to come to the club.

“But there is no complex issue to be resolved. There is no dispute with Ally McCoist. The question is, ‘can we now convince him now we have some stability?’

“Maybe there is an opportunity for us to go to him and say: ‘Ally, we are here, we are staying, would you assist us in some way going forward?’

“But we must understand he would be doing us a favour. He owes us no obligation to compromise on his legal position.

“It’s not that material. It’s not a huge issue. Obviously more cash is better than less cash, but it’s not going to change any of our plans for the next season.”

Paul Murray, who has been interim chairman while Rangers awaited “fit and proper” status being granted to King by the SFA, revealed attempts have already been made to strike a deal with McCoist. “We have met with Ally and are seeking to resolve it,” said Murray. “That’s a live situation. We have met him a couple of times and have not been able to do so. But we are still trying to do so.”