Rangers takeover: Charles Green and Ally McCoist to meet with players next week

RANGERS chief executive Charles Green and manager Ally McCoist will meet with players next week in a bid to clarify their futures at the club.

RANGERS chief executive Charles Green and manager Ally McCoist will meet with players next week in a bid to clarify their futures at the club.

• Charles Green and Ally McCoist to meet players when they return to training

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• New owner denies his investors are seeking to make a ‘fast buck’

• Green attempts to reassure fans after Walter Smith consortium withdrew bid

Green believes all contracts should transfer to his newco under employment law, despite the Scottish PFA previously claiming the squad are free to walk away.

Players are due to start reporting back to Murray Park for fitness training on June 28 and the Yorkshireman wants to hold talks with them, having already had discussions with the players’ union and some agents.

Green told RangersTV: “From the moment HMRC announced they wouldn’t support the CVA, we contacted the staff and had a meeting with them and the administrator made them aware.

“We, as a newco, started having discussions and, as far as we are concerned, all the contracts transferred under TUPE.

“Of course, the difficulty is some of the players haven’t been around and the likes of [Carlos] Bocanegra have been away on international duty with the USA team.

“They’ve also been having holidays and taking their families away so it has been more difficult with the playing staff than the non-playing staff.

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“We’ve been speaking to the PFA though and to individual agents and, as the players come back next week, Alistair and I will be sitting down with them and explaining where we are.”

Green has assured disillusioned fans that his consortium see Rangers as a long-term investment, rather than an opportunity to make a “fast buck.”

The former Sheffield United chief executive completed his purchase of the business and assets of Rangers as a newco last week, after failure to secure a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) consigned the club to liquidation.

The acquisition followed a dramatic late bid for the club by a consortium led by former manager Walter Smith, who subsequently saw a £6million offer to Green’s group rejected before agreeing to withdraw from the process yesterday.

Green said: “If there was ever a time for a rallying call for all Rangers fans to unite and start driving this club forward again it’s definitely today.

“We are not in here to make a fast buck and disappear.

“The investors who have come in have seen this as an opportunity to rebuild the club but they see this as a long-term investment.”

The Smith-fronted consortium, which comprised prominent Scottish businessmen, rejected the opportunity to join the current regime.

Green added: “We did offer to come to an arrangement with other people (the Walter Smith consortium) but that’s now finished and now we have to focus on moving forward.

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“I can assure all fans that my group of people are here for the long term.

“We started from day one with the founders and we said we would go out and seek more cash and that’s where Zeus have come in.

“The finance team are working as we speak but the last 10 days or so have put a slight delay on that because we weren’t sure whether Walter Smith was going to join us as a partner or even replace us.

“But now we are clear and we will go ahead with our plans and we will be announcing further investors in the next few weeks.”

Green’s Rangers still face a number of issues in the coming weeks, with a row over Scottish Football Association sanctions yet to be resolved, and a vote to determine whether the new company will be granted entry to the Scottish Premier League set to take place on July 4.

However, the new owner is keen to start planning for the future in a bid to avoid a repeat of the problems which forced the club into administration under the previous regime in February.

Green said: “For me it’s important that we have unity and move on.

“While it is a disappointment for Walter and his team, at least for the Rangers fans we have clarity.

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“Nothing has changed from the statement I made at Murray Park on May 13.

“We’re here to rescue the club, to turn it round and make sure it is on a sound financial platform.

“I’d just like to clear up one issue. We’re not here to make huge profits and to pay those profits out in dividends back to investors.

“But this club has to make a profit because any business, whether it’s a football club, a petrol filling station or a corner shop, has to do that.

“If it doesn’t make a profit, it goes out of business, and we haven’t spent all our time and resources to acquire this club then allow it to go back the same way within a year.”