Contract talk is cheap, says Ibrox manager Walter Smith

While the Rangers manager is savouring the prospect of the SPL trophy being presented to his team following their final match of the season against Motherwell, he is becoming increasingly irked by the confused backdrop against which their success has been achieved.

Andrew Ellis, the London-based property developer currently considering a takeover of the club, revealed this week that he hopes to conclude a deal before the end of the month which will include the offer of new contracts to Smith and his backroom staff.

Far from providing assurance to Smith, however, Ellis' comments to Sky Sports News have simply left the veteran manager even more exasperated.

Smith will meet Rangers chairman Alastair Johnston this weekend and says he hopes those discussions will leave him with a "clearer picture" of what the future holds for the club and whether he will remain part of it. But he insists his own position should have no bearing on when Ellis finally makes his intentions public.

"Buy the club first," said Smith. "If that's what they want to do, then do it. It's quite simple. You don't have to use my name or anybody else's to do that. Rangers Football Club should stand on its own and, if he (Ellis] wants to buy it, then make an offer for it.

"He's had plenty of time to make an offer so it's down to him. You get frustrated when things like that happen because the individual part, whether someone wants to offer me a three-year contract or not, it doesn't really matter.

"The most important thing is the football club. I stress that to you, that is the most important thing in our mind. Myself, (assistant manager] Ally McCoist and (first-team coach] Kenny McDowall, we are supporters and we are fortunate enough to be able to work at a club we love working at. For anybody who is thinking about buying the club to make public that they are going to offer us three-year contacts without speaking to us is not right. My situation is probably the least important. The club's situation has to be sorted more than any individuals.

"Whether I'm in the Rangers dug-out at the start of next season or not is really not the most important thing. That's just the way it is. I'll repeat, the most important thing is, in the next few weeks, that everybody starts to show a stability in where the club is and where its going to go for next season.

"Never mind the position of any individual – a manager or a player or anybody else – the club's situation is the most important thing. Once the club's situation is sorted out, everything else can follow in line with that. Since January, everybody seems to be preoccupied by the fact that we are without contracts but we still get paid, there is no problem for myself, Ally McCoist, Kenny McDowall, there is still no problem for us working without a contract.

"It's the club's overall situation that is the most important thing. If the club gets a new owner and he wants me to stay on, he will indicate that. If he wants us to leave, then we will leave.

"There is not a problem with that situation but it would be wrong of us to mislead people and say we are going to do one thing or another and then find out that we are not."

Regardless of whether he is to stay in charge, Smith and his staff have been attempting to identify potential new signings for the summer. The level of player Rangers can afford, however, is dependent on whether the club has a new owner.

"I will meet the chairman when he comes over from America this weekend," added Smith, "and hopefully we will have a clearer picture, within the next week or so, of which path we are going on. As long as we know which one it is, that's the main thing.

"Although our scouting department was cut back fairly dramatically, we've still been reasonably active in that area and we have a fair idea of some of the targets we would want.

"I've not been able to do a great deal of planning at the moment, so that's a little logistic problem we have to get over. We've been doing enough in the background to keep us up to speed with what we need and what we want, effectively what we can get.

"We've got a fair number of things that we need to chat about so we will do that. I've said this quite consistently that we have to get this clarity, regardless of what it is.

"The main thing is just to try to get a situation where the club is sorted out and given a bit of direction, regardless of what that is, whether we carry on under the banks rule, or new owners, supporter buy-outs or anything like that. As long as there is clarity from everybody's point of view, its a necessary thing to have.

"I don't think you are going to have a situation where the chairman appears, has a couple of meetings, and then everything is clarified. It's not going to be quite as simple as that.

"But the close-season is an important time for the footballing side of things so hopefully the sooner things get settled down the better."

Smith will also take time out tomorrow, however, to enjoy an occasion at Ibrox which he and his players have worked hard to create.

"We haven't been able to celebrate properly so far, partly because we've had games," he said. "And there are also these other bits surrounding the club at the moment. I think even a day after winning the championship, it's away back to the same as it was before.

"I think this season our players have deserved it. You don't ever really win a championship without deserving it but, this season, they've been excellent in terms of their overall approach. Hopefully we will enjoy the game. But obviously, for us, the celebration, for us, is something we especially look forward to."