Ther
e is increased speculation this morning that Rangers financial crisis could force Walter Smith to resign this weekend.
A budget cut of almost 40%, trimming the players wage bill from £16m down to £10m, is behind the latest stories suggesting that Smith is poised to quit.
After receiving the SPL trophy Smith had said that he’d take a fortnight to decide his own future and was clearly angry with suggestions from would-be-Rangers-owner Andrew Ellis that he was about to be offered a new three year contract.
“He (Ellis) can say what he likes about me but I would be obliged if he would speak to me before he mentions anything else in the newspapers again,” Smith responded to Ellis’s second hand contract offer.
“I agree with Sir David Murray, if somebody is going to come in and take over the club then do so instead of talking about it in newspapers.”
There has certainly been lots of newspaper talk since Rangers won the SPL title away to Hibs about future ownership.
With six players out of contract, and another half dozen entering the final year of their deals, other than John Fleck no-one has renewed their Ibrox contract.
“I don’t know what Alastair (Johnston, Rangers chairman, not cheeky chappy Coisty) can do. You would need to ask him that. But we do need players and that is one of the things we spoke about.
“In normal circumstances that would be the kind of chat a manager and chairman would have. But in normal circumstances that chat would have happened months ago.”
Just like the queue of Celtic players nominating Neil Lennon to be made permanent manager the Rangers squad have been pleading constantly to ‘give Walter a new deal’.
While other businesses have been stripped down, sold off or put into administration Rangers have functioned as usual and were even allowed to sign French wizard Jerome Rothen on loan at the start of the season.
With no serious candidates or offers on the table Lloyds TSB seem to have run out of patience as they attempt to recover some of the losses that were run up during the days of HBoS looking after Rangers, and Murray’s, businesses.
A weekend announcement can now be expected from Smith, perhaps it will take the departure of the club manager for others to realise the seriousness of the position that Rangers finances are in… and the consequences.
Meanwhile Kris Boyd has claimed that he has offers from seven clubs for his services next season.