Ally McCoist at odds with Sone Aluko story

Ally McCoist has denied that Soni Aluko has paid the majority of the fee needed to secure his release from Aberdeen.

With Rangers in a dire financial position the club were unable to come up with a compensation fee to Aberdeen.

Rather than own up to the severity of their position it was decided to go with the claim that the Nigerian was so keen to join Rangers that he reversed footballing tradition of getting a transfer fee by paying his old club to enable the transfer fee to go through.

By playing the ‘Juventus trialist’ card the story made perfect reading until McCoist contradicted the yarn in less than convincing terms.

Rather than highlight the players obvious desire to play for Rangers the Ibrox boss became a bit sensitive and unsure about the details of the deal.

“Some of the reporting has been, at best, very average indeed,” said McCoist. “I wouldn’t say I’m upset, but I’m a wee bit disappointed. There has been talk about the lad’s family (paying from their savings) and all that stuff, which I can tell you is absolute nonsense.

“I’ll tell you why I’m having a go. Someone has said he is paying £150,000, which is really poor. He is paying absolutely nothing like that. If it’s a tenth of that, maybe.”

Asked to clarify what percentage Aluko had paid of the fee McCoist was less certain saying: “I don’t know 100 per cent, but I wouldn’t tell you if I did.”

Twenty four hours earlier both the Daily Record and The Sun had direct quotes from Aluko explaining why he had paid out his own money to join Rangers.

The Sun put the cost at £150,000 with Aluko saying: “I don’t have millions in the bank. Looking at it that way, this is a big risk.

“I’ve literally put my whole career on one decision. If it goes wrong, it goes very wrong. Equally, if it goes right, then it pays off.”

Not to be outdone the Daily Record claimed that Aluko had paid £50,000 up front with a further £150,00 to come over the two years of his contract.

The Record quoted Aluko- who turned down a last gasp offer from Watford to complete his dream move- as saying: “The way I see it is what I have done here is invest in my own future.

“If this move works out the way I hope it will then I will go on to have a very good career and I’ll make the money back somewhere along the line.

“I did have other offers and I could have chosen a more comfortable way of doing things. I could have gone done a more normal route but this is Rangers.

“It’s a huge club, on a huge stage and the chance may never have come around again. I wouldn’t have made these kind of sacrifices for just any club.”

Going a step further Aluko’s adviser Jim Love added: “Rangers have not parted with a coin.

“Sone and his family have put money up and, as the agents, we also put our commission into the pot. Morally, we could not do anything else.

“A proportion of the fee has been paid up front and the rest will come out of Sone’s wages and appearance money over the next two years. It tells you something about this boy’s dedication and desire to succeed.

“He has paid his ticket to go to Rangers. I can’t think of any other player in this day and age who would have made this kind of sacrifice. But it’s not about money – it’s all about his career.”

Rangers inability to pay a £200,000 fee for Aluko suggests that times have changed dramatically since the summer when they had a £2m offer for David Goodwillie turned down at the same time as they put in an offer of £2.5m to Anderlecht for defender Roland Juhasz rejected by the Belgian club.