McCoist warned to balance the books

Craig Mather has warned Ally McCoist that he’ll need to sell before he can bring in any new players.

The cost cutting at Ibrox is already underway with Carlos Bocanegra and Dorin Goian being paid off while £11,000/week goalkeeper Neil Alexander didn’t get his contract renewed.

At the end of last season McCoist said that he wanted to bring in a dozen new players. So far he has made seven signings with four leaving including the highly rated striker Kane Hemming.

With 10,000 season ticket holders walking away it looks like some tough financial decisions will have to be made with Mather dropping a heavy hint that McCoist’s spending spree is over.

“More of the squad could be moving on,” the stand-in chief executive told the club website. “There’s potential for that, I’m not going to sit here and hide it.

“Ally has made no secret of the fact he’d like to make one or two more signings if possible and in principle I have no problem with that.

“We do have to balance the books though and look at it accordingly. “It would be good for the stability of the club if we can get a couple more moved on as well.”

With Ibrox salaries way above the going rate for the Second Division it’s unlikely that any players will be rushing out the door.

Left-back Lee Wallace looks the most likely player to be sold with Steven Smith and Ricky Forster signed up in the last fortnight to provide options in that position.