Rangers: Keith Lasley fears loyal staff will bear brunt of shambles

WHEN Motherwell became the first SPL club to plunge into administration ten years ago Keith Lasley watched 19 players walk out of Fir Park, never to return.

The high-profile dismissals of the likes of Greg Strong, Karl Ready and Roberto Martinez claimed the headlines as the Lanarkshire outfit made unprecedented cuts. But it was behind the scenes that the most wretched restructuring was taking place, with many of the club’s ordinary, non-playing staff shown the door after years of service.

And the Motherwell stalwart believes the heart could be similarly ripped out of Rangers, as dedicated workers pay the price for the financial mismanagement of those who have run the club into the ground.

The 32-year-old recalled: “The cuts affect the people behind the scenes. You look at a club the size of Rangers and there are so many people who work hard at every aspect of running that club. These are the staff who have committed 20 years to a club sometimes, and it truly is sad to think they will pay the price for this situation. During that time they won’t have picked up huge salaries, but will have worked their fingers to the bone for the club and been a big part of keeping Rangers running. It’s no fault of their own that the club are in this position – yet they are the ones who could lose their jobs.

“I really hope the administrators try to keep as many staff as they can, but unfortunately there will be a line drawn and every department will get evaluated. At Motherwell, your name was put on a notice board and you went into see the administrators at the set time, and they told you whether you still had a job. Simple as that.

“On any given day you could get pulled into an office and told you are leaving.”

The Fir Park side were the first SPL side to enter administration, with yearly losses approaching around £2M and 51 players on the books at the club.

In tumultuous financial times for Scottish football, the likes of Dundee, Livingston and Gretna have followed the Steelmen down that path.

However Rangers are by far the highest-profile club to resort to such measures, and Lasley admits that, even with the club’s well-documented problems, he was shocked by the news. The ‘Well stalwart continued: “You wouldn’t think that something like this would happen to a club like Rangers.”