Nikica Jelavic denies he forced transfer to Everton from Rangers

NIKICA JELAVIC has denied engineering his deadline day move away from Rangers to Everton, insisting instead that he would have stayed at Ibrox if he’d been asked to by chairman Craig Whyte.

The Croatian international striker was formally unveiled by his new club at a media conference yesterday following his £5.5 million transfer.

The move was completed just two-and-a-half hours before the January window closed on Tuesday night and, in an open letter to Rangers supporters on the club website afterwards, Whyte stated that Jelavic “wanted to leave and there is no point in trying to keep a player who no longer wants to be at Ibrox”.

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And, in a newspaper interview yesterday, in which he insisted he has a £25 million personal commitment in the club and again defended the deal to cash in on future season ticket sales, Whyte added that he had threatened to call off the Jelavic transfer when the player’s agent sought a late change in the terms of the deal.

“I was in the office at 8pm on Tuesday when his agent started asking for more money,” said Whyte. “I told him to send the player back. They got the deal done in the end. The reality is, if the money is right, you do it.”

Jelavic, while admitting he has fulfilled a long-held ambition to play in the top flight of English football, claimed he was nonetheless prepared to be part of manager Ally McCoist’s squad for the rest of the season. “My dream was to play in the English Premier League but I never forced my transfer,” said Jelavic.

“I spoke with Ally McCoist and said ‘if the president (Whyte) wants me to stay, I’ll stay and if they need money and want me to leave, I’ll leave’. The club decided. It is a difficult situation and I heard inside information about them having problems. It is still my team and my friends are there and I am worried about the situation but I think they will find a solution because they are a big institution.”

The images of a grim-faced McCoist leaving Ibrox on Tuesday, after a meeting at Ibrox with Whyte when it became clear no replacement striker would be signed, suggested the manager and chairman’s relationship has become strained. Not so, according to Whyte. “I know there were all these rumours about Ally quitting but I am 100 per cent behind him,” he insisted. “I feel our relationship is solid. We wanted to get someone else in and Ally had the chance to bring players in, but chose not to at the level available to him.

“We tried to get Grant Holt but Norwich wouldn’t sell and we weren’t prepared to break the bank for a 30-year-old player. Ally decided that, if he couldn’t get the one big signing, he would stick with what he had. Ally understood that, if we had to offer the £4 million Norwich wanted for Grant Holt on deadline night, the deal simply didn’t make sense. We decided to hold off and sort out the off-the-field issues, try to get to a position where we can bring in really good players this summer.”

Whyte, meanwhile, accused former Rangers chairman Alastair Johnston and director Paul Murray of carrying out a “vendetta” against him through the concerns they have raised this week about his financial stewardship of the club he purchased from Sir David Murray last May. Whyte also stated that two other members of the previous board, John McClelland and Martin Bain, were beneficiaries of the Employee Benefit Trust (EBT) operated by Rangers which sees them awaiting a potential £49 million HMRC tax bill.

Whyte said: “They are slagging me off but where was Paul Murray when the club was up for sale for three years?”

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“How much money did Alastair Johnston put into Rangers? The bitter irony here is that John McClelland has an EBT and so does Martin Bain. The EBTs were stopped the day that I took over. They took big salaries out and operated a tax scheme that has driven this club to the brink.

“There is no question that there is a vendetta against me by the old board. They wanted the club to themselves and I spoiled their plans. Now, instead of getting on with their lives, their anger is increasing. They throw up this figure of £24.4 million and say we have sold off four years of season ticket money. The deal is actually for three years. The deal is also fully underwritten by one of my companies. There is no risk to Rangers fans whatsoever. The money they put into Rangers stays in Rangers.

“I have a personal commitment of £25 million in Rangers and I have never taken a penny out of the club. I don’t take expenses and I travel on my own coin, unlike those who are sniping in the background.”

Whyte added that he does not believe entering administration to be the certain outcome many now think once the HMRC tribunal decision is announced and blames the delay to the club’s annual general meeting on the uncertainty.

“We can’t have an agm until we have the accounts signed off,” he said. “We can’t get the accounts signed off until we have more clarity on the tax case. It’s chicken and egg. I still think we will have it before the end of March. People underestimate how tough it is to run the business in these circumstances. It (administration) is not inevitable and, if we can avoid it, then we will. On the other hand, I can’t say that it won’t happen either. All I can say is that I will do all I can in my power to avoid that situation.”

Ali Russell, Rangers’ Chief Operating Officer, last night described Jelavic’s comments as “ridiculous”. He said: “Nikica told Ally McCoist personally on Monday he wanted to move to the English Premier League so to suggest he didn’t want to leave Rangers is nonsense. Nikica, and indeed his family, were widely quoted about playing in England and his agent also communicated the fact he wanted to achieve a lifetime ambition and test himself in the Premier League.

“He wants to earn a starting place for Croatia at Euro 2012 and felt a move to England’s top flight would help him achieve that. Nikica was a terrific player for Rangers and we wish him well at Everton but to suggest he was forced to leave Ibrox is just ridiculous.”