Rangers administration: McCoist encouraged by talks with Bill Miller

RANGERS manager Ally McCoist has described talks with American businessman Bill Miller as “very encouraging”, stating that he had been impressed by the prospective buyer’s enthusiasm and plans for the club.

“I spoke to Bill Miller last night. I had a conference call for the best part of an hour which was very encouraging. I got the feeling that he, obviously, wants what is best for the club and that’s the most important thing and he asked me one or two things about the club and the next obvious step would be that we would meet and that will be the case if the administrators give him preferred bidder status. I would certainly then fly over to the States as soon as.”

McCoist says he has “no clue” who will get the nod from the administrators, who have three bids to consider. But with the decision on a preferred bidder expected this week, the only party not to have contacted McCoist is Bill Ng, the Singaporean entrepreneur fronting the Far East consortium. “If I had [been contacted] I would certainly be talking to them or meeting them, so, no, I have had no contact at all from the Singaporean bidders. I would hope that I will soon,” said McCoist. “I am ready, willing and available whenever the Singaporean consortium want to speak to me, if they want, of course, to talk to me at all.”

In the meantime he says the fans, who staged a demonstration making clear they are vehemently opposed to liquidation, can been encouraged by what Miller had to say. “He did not say that [liquidation would be his preferred strategy]. He actually said there’s still the possibility of a CVA (company voluntary arrangement), which he would be for, but he is aware of the fact as well that liquidation might be a route.

“But there was no way, no, not for a minute, that he said liquidation was the route he wanted to go down. Not at all. I can totally understand where the fans are coming from because it’s the feeling of the vast majority and indeed everybody within the club. As I said before, I think there’s still obviously encouragement there from the fact that there is the distinct possibility we can come out of administration through a CVA and as you saw today, that’s what nearly everybody wants and that’s still got a good chance, although we have to accept there is still the threat of liquidation.”

The third bidder is Paul Murray’s Blue Knights.