Walter Smith rejects urge to quit on a high and says he'll go when time is right

• "There is trepidation about saying I'm going to finish, because I am enjoying it" Walter Smith

Smith's future is in the spotlight while Rangers are for sale amid debts of around 30million and London-based property tycoon Andrew Ellis assessing a bid. It has been suggested that Smith could call it a day at the end of this season, with Rangers holding a 13-point lead in the SPL, facing St Mirren in the Co-operative Insurance Cup final on Sunday and through to the Scottish Cup semi-finals.

But the 62-year-old, who is working on a non-contract basis, admits feeling "trepidation" over his retirement and does not want to regret leaving too soon.

"People keep asking me if I will be leaving and the truth is that I don't know because no-one knows what is going to happen with the club," said Smith.

"A lot will depend on what is happening at the club and my own mindset. There is still a lot of football to be played and it's like everything else – if you finish on a successful spell everyone says 'well, you should leave on a high'. I am not of that mind.

"Whatever happens it will not be a case of going out on a high, it will be if the time is right.

"If Rangers get new owners it could maybe be that they don't want you, or I could say, new owners, new start and they need the freshness of a different management team.

"I genuinely don't know what I am going to do. I was walking in before the Old Firm game a few weeks ago at 11am and I was asking myself, as the nerves got to me, why I was doing this.

"Then you get a last-minute goal and you remember what the reason is for doing it.

"I think the feeling when you lose a game is worse than it has ever been and you don't quite get the highs you used to.

"I certainly feel the defeats much worse than I used to and that aspect of it is quite strange."

Smith was tempted away from the Scotland job to steady the ship at Rangers but quickly turned the club around, collecting four trophies in his first two seasons back in charge as well as leading the team to a Uefa Cup final.

And Smith, who helped the club to nine consecutive titles in his first spell, seven of them clinched as manager, is reluctant to end a good thing.

"I must admit at times when I came back to Rangers I didn't think I would be here for any great length of time," he said.

"I think the thing is when I got the sack from Everton and I had a year of not really doing anything before the Scotland job, I quite enjoyed it for three or four months because you are able to do things you can't when you are involved day-to-day with football.

"After a period of time though, you wonder whether you want to do that. It's even worse this time because there is a finality about retiring and I have to ask myself whether that is something that I really want.

"There is a little bit of trepidation about saying I'm going to finish because I am enjoying it. I have no incapacity stopping me doing anything."

Meanwhile, Rangers chairman Alastair Johnston says he would not approve the sale of the club to a new owner who put the club into debt to finance the purchase.

"What we don't want is any Glazers/Manchester United situation at Ibrox," said Johnston.