Fraser Wishart has praised his union members for accepting a 75% pay cut from Rangers.
Ally McCoist’s entire squad have accepted pay cuts ranging from 25 to 75% in order to cut costs by £1m a month and stave off the threat of liquidation.
The new deal lasts for three months and it’s unclear what concessions the players have been given for agreeing to the cuts.Â
A week of negotiations ended tonight with the breakthrough announcement that there would be no playing redundancies with minimal redundancies amongst non-playing staff.
Allan McGregor, Steve Davis and Steven Whittaker are amongst those accepting the biggest pay cuts despite signing new contracts last summer.
Announcing the deal Wishart told the Rangers website: “The players are to be applauded for their efforts. It really has been a fantastic gesture from them and the main thing is that is meant no redundancies and the club can now trade until the end of the season.
“The camaraderie in the group is very special because some of the players could have left and secured better deals elsewhere but they chose to take a pay cut and remain with their colleagues.
“That really tells you the level of unity in the Rangers squad and it shows what the club means to all of them.
“Of course retaining the playing squad makes Rangers a better prospect for a buyer so that is another huge benefit.
“Much has been written and said about the talks but at all times the players were as one and this has been borne out by what has happened tonight.”
Tonight’s agreement should see Rangers able to fulfill their fixtures through to the end of the season.
However with Duff and Phelps admitting that a licence to play in European football next season is unlikely and Rangers effectively out of contention for trophies this season the only motive for today’s deal will be to assist in finding a buyer.
Speaking later on Radio Clyde Wishart admitted: “I don’t think that the threat of liquidation has been removed, these are worrying times for the club.”
Paul Clark of Duff and Phelps admitted: “We should be absolutely clear that this Club is in a perilous financial situation and there are no easy options. If substantial cost reduction could not be achieved then the Club would not survive until the end of the season.
“Administration is never a painless process and is imperative if the Club is to survive that the business trades viably through the period of administration.”
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Oh dear…nearly feel sorry for R*ngers fans, they’ll think this is great!!! Poor souls.
Well played Fraser. MOM performance.
If the players were as ONE…WHY did it take so long to agree to the cuts ??
WHY ask for clauses in contracts giving them lower transfer fees or indeed FREE transfers.
Why did two of the lowest paid have to walk away…surely they could have stayed with the rest of the legends.
I don’t expect any self respecting journalist to ask such questions though…not Wishart to answer.
I suspect Greg Wylde and Mr. Celik saw an opportunity to get out and used this as an excuse. Wylde couldn’t get out fast enough.
As I said on KDS “This may have been said earlier (it’s hard to keep up, so I don’t know) but … surely Fraser Wishart’s role in this has to be questioned. I have never heard of a union rep encouraging his members to take any kind of wage cut, never mind one of 75%. Is it just a coincidence that Mr Wishart used to play for …”.
It stinks! Since I posted that I heard him on Clyde 1 and it was all about “the club”, not about his members. The guy has outed himself even more than before as someone who cares more about the huns that the people he’s supposed to represent. No wonder no-one likes them (but they don’t care).
This is absolute nonsense. They have negotiated much lower transfer fees during the summer and will be able to ask for huge signing on bonuses from their new clubs. The season is nearly finished! They have deferred payments until the end of May by all accounts.
Would they not have been made redundant any way and have to join the lengthy queue of creditors to claim their money? Again the Scottish media is deplorable in its reporting. Why are these fat succulent lamb munching reprobates still frightened to ask any one a real question about rangers.
The big story this morning, by fatty Mr Succulent lamb himself, is that Ticketus are part of Murray’s consortium negotiating a deal with the administrators to buy the club! They are putting a deal together which could be on the table by friday. Surely somene has got to be saying ‘behind you’.
This will be the same mob that are due all the cash for the first 26,000 season tickets sold for the next three seasons. Possibly trying to make sure they get their dosh back. They appear to be football clubs equivalent to a crack dealer with rangers being the strung out junkie. Surely this deal has got to be questioned.
Rangers are attracting the scummiest, low-lifes of the business community. Long may it continue.
Practically none of these guys has Rangers interests at heart. There are no Fergus Mc Cann’s just ruthless vulture capitalists and if they are not very careful they will stagger from one disaster to another and will become the businessmen’s tart, used and cast aside repeatedly.
Well here’s hoping.
The scottish media never fail to amaze.Now these players are legends,eh?,very alturistic,and full of integrity.They are part and parcel of the cheating and anti-catholic bile that comes from that cesspit.
first point,wishart could not spell the word shop steward,so please dont mention him in the same breath as reid,airlie gilmore and scargill.in fact margaret thatcher probably had more socialist principles than him.secondly ,when did a union rep.hold more than one source of income?. give up your other jobs and give somebody else a chance.