Rangers crisis: Ally McCoist knows job may be on line

ALLY McCOIST says he will have no complaints if he loses his job as Rangers manager under any new ownership of the club.

After spending much of the past week in contact with several of the parties interested in buying Rangers, McCoist has emerged more optimistic that the ailing Scottish champions can avoid liquidation.

But despite his close involvement in the process, and the admiration he has earned from Rangers supporters for his leading public role since the club went into administration almost five weeks ago, McCoist recognises that a new regime in the boardroom may decide to make a change in the technical area.

“That could happen,” said McCoist, whose side face Dundee United in today’s lunchtime kick-off at Tannadice. “No matter what happens, I won’t be throwing my toys out of the pram. I’ll still be supporting Rangers, I can guarantee that. Without flying out the trenches to get riddled by bullets and taking them all for the team, I would say it is the club that is the most important thing. I’m damned tootin’ that if I was spending £25m, £30m, I don’t know how many million, I would want somebody in charge who was my own man.

“Hopefully, that will be me but I’m not daft enough to think it might not be. That’s what happens in football, it’s a cruel game. We all know the rules, so there’s no point me moaning about it. That’s another hurdle, but I’m really positive about the fact that whoever does come in, they will have the club’s best interests at heart.”

Ahead of yesterday’s deadline for indicative offers to be lodged with administrators Duff and Phelps, McCoist met with some of those preparing bids. They included Sale Sharks rugby club owner Brian Kennedy and former Rangers director Paul Murray who is heading the Blue Knights consortium.

“I’ve met a couple of them and I have spoken to two or three others on the phone,” added McCoist. “I’ve spoken to David Whitehouse of the administrators today. He is quite keen for me to meet a few people again next week, Monday or Tuesday, after the bids are closed today.

“I’m absolutely more optimistic now. You are looking for things to grab a hold of at this stage but the people I have spoken to have made nothing other than positive noises about it. I met Brian Kennedy. I had a good chat with him and it was really positive.

“I’ve spoken to Paul Murray on numerous occasions. But I made it clear to everybody I’ve spoken to that I would be speaking to the other interested parties as well. There’s no way I’ve got a favourite or someone I want to see come in above the rest. That wouldn’t be fair. I feel I’ve a duty to keep an open mind while telling them where I see the club going and what I feel would be ideal in the future. The ones I spoke to all asked me how much needs to be invested in the team and I’ve told them what I think. They all stayed in the meetings when they heard how much I said, which was a plus.

“I don’t know (about the Far East or American bids) because I haven’t met them. You’d have to think they are looking at the potential of running the club as a successful, viable business, which would attract business people.

“But the 140-year history would not go unnoticed by anybody, who had a view to buying the club, so you would hope beyond all hope they realise what they are dealing with and how the club means so much to so many people.

“The fact there have been interested parties at all is good news. So, without getting carried away, it’s been a better few days for us.

“The last month has been as black as any in the club’s history, if not the blackest. But it’s never too soon for optimism in my book.

“There are definitely positives now, with the fact that the vast majority of the workforce will keep their jobs at this moment in time. I was delighted at the way everyone came together, especially the younger players who cannot really afford wage reductions, to make that happen. That was our best result of the season.

“Liquidation maybe looks a little bit further away today than it did a while back, when it seemed a lot closer. The threat of liquidation is still there, I’m not daft enough to say otherwise, but I’d be hopeful now that we can avoid that worse case scenario.”