First major cuts expected from Rangers
Upto a dozen Rangers players look like being axed as administrators Duff and Phelps make their first serious attempt at cost cutting.
Those players remaining at the club are likely to be forced into accepting massive pay cuts as Rangers attempt to survive until the end of the season.
Rangers went into administration on February 14 but so far only Gordon Smith and Ali Russell have been removed from the wage bill, with the costs of a team from Duff and Phelps now running the show at Ibrox to be factored in it’s likely that the week to week costs have risen since the club went into administration.
That state of affairs will end today with the guessing game underway as to who will be forced out of the club. Anyone without a sell-on value is likely to be most at risk with players such as Sasa Papac, David Healy, Sone Aluko and Salim Kerka especially vulnerable since they are out of contract at the end of the current season.
Cuts will also be expected in the backroom team and amongst staff at the club as the enormity of the their massive debts start to emerge.
Axing players is bound to attract the most attention placing Ally McCoist in a difficult situation. The Rangers boss went on record to say that it would be ‘morally wrong for him to act as judge and jury’ on his playing staff but it’s unlikely that only the administrators were involved selecting which players are made redundant.
Rangers play Hearts on Saturday with the redundancy news likely to heighten the atmosphere around the club even further.
Hearts are owed £800,000 from the sale of Lee Wallace last summer with three other SPL clubs out of pocket due to the crisis at Ibrox.
Dundee United, Dunfermline and Inverness Caley Thistle haven’t been paid for tickets sold by Rangers with Dunfermline players paying the price today.
Rangers owe Dunfermline £80,000 from the game at East End Park on February 11 but that amount has been added to the long list of creditors.
On Tuesday night Pars manager Jim McIntyre sent out a text message warning his players that they would only receive 60% of their salary despite the club paying the lowest wages in the SPL.
Today’s news from Ibrox is likely to be the tip of the iceberg with absent chairman Craig Whyte telling Sky Sports News that further pain is likely amid fanciful claims that the club could be out of administration by the end of March.
If Rangers are unable to produce audited accounts by the end of this month the SFA will be unable to issue them with a licence to play in Europe next season. With Champions League football capable of providing in the region of £15m that sort of loss makes salvaging the club as a going concern much less likely.
Former Rangers director Paul Murray is hoping to announce the names of his Blue Knights consortium tomorrow but pledges of hard cash to invest and save the club are unlikely.
In October Murray told the BBC that he had never known any business to be taken over that faces the likelihood of receiving a £50m tax bill.
With the outcome of the First Tier Tribunal still not known there is no chance of anyone buying out Craig Whyte’s 85% shareholding in the club.
Murray’s consortium are more likely to be discussing plans of how to invest in a new football club which will cause all sorts of difficulties if they attempt to apply for direct membership of the SPL.
With four member clubs already out of pocket and Celtic being portrayed as putting the boot in over tickets for the March 25 clash at Ibrox hostility is growing over the way Rangers have treated their fellow SPL members.
If no moves are made to settle debts to other clubs it’s highly unlikely that the red carpet will be laid out to welcome a new club into the game after the demise of Rangers.
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