Brian Laudrup

ALLY McCOIST fears he could be booted OUT of Rangers by the club's new owners. ALLY McCOIST admits Rangers FC have endured the worst month in their history But McCoist says he will refuse to pass judgment on prospective owners if he's asked by administrators Duff and Phelps. Three potential owners submitted bids to take over the stricken SPL champions by yesterday's 5pm deadline. Gers boss McCoist said: "Without coming flying out of the trenches to get riddled with bullets, Rangers is still the most important thing. "I've said that all along and I mean it. I'm damned sure that if I was spending however many millions, I'd want somebody in charge who was my own man. "Hopefully that will be me — but I'm not daft enough to know it might not be. "That's another hurdle, but I'm really positive about the fact whoever does come in will have Rangers' best interests at heart. "Me not being here when Rangers moves on could happen, that's part of being in football. "We all know the rules so there's no point me moaning about it. Football's a cruel game. "There are a lot more important things to worry about and no matter what happens I won't be throwing the toys out the pram. "I'll still be supporting Rangers. I can guarantee that." Quizzed as to whether he'd give administrators Paul Clark and David Whitehouse his input as to the calibre of prospective owners, he replied: "You'd have to ask Duff and Phelps, but it's not on the agenda at the moment. "I'm not sure I'd want to have an input to be honest. "It would be a huge responsibility if it goes pear-shaped again. "I'd go from being the saviour to getting the blame in about two months! "I'm not sure I could handle that, but if I was asked to have an input I'd give an honest opinion." McCoist has spoken to several of the interested parties and told them he'd speak to them all. He added: "I've spoken to Paul Murray on numerous occasions. But I made it clear to everybody I've spoken to I would be speaking to the other interested parties as well." Read more: http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/sport/spl/4200738/Coisty-lifts-lid-on-his-takeover-fears.html#ixzz1pKRbr1iM

Dunferline Athletic have parted company with manager Jim McIntyre, STV understands. The former Dundee United and Kilmarnock striker had been in charge of the Pars since being named as caretaker boss in December 2007. McIntyre was named as the full-time replacement for Irishman Stephen Kenny in January 2008 and after several seasons in the First Division, he led the Fife side back to the SPL last term. However the club have not won a home league match all season and currently sit bottom of the SPL league table.

:McGregor: :McCabe: :McCulloch: :Aluko: :Edu: :Davis: :Kerkar: :Healy:

Notices of Complaint issued Thursday, 15 March 2012 The following Notices of Complaint have been issued by the Compliance Officer: Issued to: Rangers FC Dates: 6th May 2011 to 6 March 2012 Disciplinary Rule(s) allegedly breached: Rules 1, 2, 14, 66 and 71 Principal Hearing Date: Thursday, 29th March 2012 Issued to: Craig Whyte, Director, Rangers FC Dates: 6th May 2011 to 6 March 2012 Disciplinary Rule(s) allegedly breached: Rules 66 and 71 Principal Hearing Date: Thursday, 29th March 2012 Rule 1 (b): All members shall: (b) be subject to and comply with the Articles and any statutes, regulations, directives, codes, decisions and International Match Calendar promulgated by the Board, the Professional Game Board, the Non Professional Game Board, the Judicial Panel, a Committee or sub-committee, FIFA, UEFA or the Court of Arbitration for Sport; Rule 2: Each member shall procure that its officials, its Team Staff and its players act in accordance with Rule 1. Rule 14 (g): Full membership or associate membership may be suspended or terminated, or a fine may be issued, in any of the following circumstances:- (g) where a full member or an associate member suffers or is subject to an insolvency event. Rule 66: No recognised football body, club, official, Team Official or other member of Team Staff, player, referee, or other person under the jurisdiction of the Scottish FA shall bring the game into disrepute. Rule 71: A recognised football body, club, official, Team Official, other member of Team Staff, player or other person under the jurisdiction of the Scottish FA shall, at all times, act in the best interests of Association Football and shall not act in any manner which is improper.

Lee Cattermole

FOUR of Rangers' top earners last night became the first to sign up to massive wage cuts in a bid to save the ailing club. Steve Davis, Allan McGregor, Steven Whittaker and Steven Naismith all agreed to salary hits of 75 per cent after FIFTEEN hours of negotiations yesterday. And if the rest of the squad follow suit this morning then the administrators are set to waive anymore cuts to the playing staff. After yet another day of drama sources close to bean counters Duff and Phelps confirmed the deals had been struck after Naismith and Whittaker were seen speeding out of Murray Park at 11pm. It's understood Whittaker and Gers diehard Naisy had stayed on to try and cement an agreement with the bean-counters on no more of their teammates being shown the exit door. They were also desperate to have an assurance that no non-football staff would lose their jobs. While they couldn't get written agreement on the latter it's thought joint administrators Paul Clark and David Whitehouse did give them a statement of intent. SunSport revealed on Wednesday that skipper Davis, front-man Naisy and right-back Whittaker had angrily clashed with administrators after accusing them of trying to force them into taking cuts. Scotland keeper McGregor has also been a key influence in talks with the bean-counters over reaching agreement on wages. Last night they were given some of the assurances they'd been looking for and finally put pen to paper to take home just a quarter of what they used to earn. McGregor, Davis, Naismith and Whittaker signed up to new long-term deals only last year but will now see their weekly returns drop from five figures to four. But the news will be a huge boost to Clark and Whitehouse — as well as worried Gers fans — after they had insisted deals with the squad needed to be done today to avoid savage compulsory cuts being implemented. Read more: http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/sport/spl/4182405/Big-4-agree-to-cuts.html#ixzz1oZzILK6y

Paul Bosvelt

PROSPECTIVE new owners of Rangers will meet with administrators Duff and Phelps tonight and tomorrow with a tight deadline of Friday set for the way forward for the club. In an exclusive interview with RangersTV, joint administrator David Whitehouse has revealed that a CVA - a company voluntary agreement - can still be used to take Rangers out of administration but says there is a more difficult scenario of the business becoming a "newco" which would heavy sanctions both domestically and in Europe. However, he has accelerated the search for prospective purchasers after failing to reach an agreement with the players on cost-cutting. He said: "Ultimately the aim is to find new, strong owners to take the club forward with a financial base so we are now looking at other strategies. "In the next 48 hours or so we are approaching and meeting with those parties who have already expressed an interest in acquiring the club to understand their timetable and to try to accelerate what would be a normal timetable for this sort of transaction. "We have a meeting this evening and we have a series of meetings tomorrow and we will have to conclude our strategy in that regard during the course of Friday. "In light of the outcome of those discussions we can then form a view as to whether we can continue to operate the club within its existing cost base. "If we do form that view that would have to be over a very short period of time because the company is burning cash at a significant rate. "Alternatively, if we can't envisage completing a transaction within that time frame then we will have to either secure cost-cuts with the consent of the players or make some quite serious and deep redundancies. "That is something we will try to avoid because value in those redundancies will centre around the playing staff and that affects the underlying value of the business. "So it's a case of striking the balance of keeping the resource on the playing side which keeps the club active and competitive and attractive to a purchaser against what's needed off the field which is a sustainable and viable business. "The playing squad is at the heart of what any potential purchaser is looking to acquire so therefore it is critical that we have an infrastructure that is sustainable on the pitch. "We met with the players today and they know the constraints within which we are working. "They are working together to see if they re-address some of the barriers that were put in place yesterday to achieve the cost-cuts which would have enabled us to complete the season's fixtures and enable us to complete a sale or more orderly transition for the business." Mr Whitehouse says that the merits of the business will be open for any potential buyer to look and reiterated that Duff and Phelps are still in litigation over the recovery of funds they believe belong to the football club. He said: "We have detailed financial forecasts and inventories of assets that potential purchasers can look at as well as full details of the playing squad in terms of salary packages and length of period of contracts. "So they are the things they will be weighing up and one of the things they will want to understand as well is the strategy in terms of the playing staff through the management so Ally McCoist is feeding the information in that area. "This will enable them to find out what kind of investment is required in the years ahead. "A CVA is still very possible and the more likely route to achieve the greater value for creditors. "We have to look at the time constraint and if it is possible to conclude a transaction within a very short timetable simply because we can't deliver the cost-cuts necessary to keep the fabric of the business in place then we would also have to look at selling into a newco scenario. "That brings with it risks in terms of the level of European activity in the coming years and also sanctions from domestic football which would need to be subject to negotiation. "If we were to look to a very early sale of the business that is probably a more likely scenario. "What we don't want to do is mix the terminology here and start to portray liquidation as a process which creates the cessation of the business. "The liquidation will wind up a business following the sale of the business activities into a newco. "So in any scenario we would still envisage that Rangers Football Club could play football and operate as a football team. "We have always said that liquidation is a possible scenario. The preferred scenario from our perspective both in terms of the return to creditors and a platform for retaining an on-going continuous business is through a CVA. "That would take time to deliver and in the event that we can't bridge this funding gap which we have at the moment then we would have to look at alternative strategies. "There are still some disputes over the levels of liability and certain elements of that are under litigations so we can't go into the detail of that. "It is in the public domain that we have opened proceedings in a number of matters. "In any scenario either through a CVA or through a distribution through an administration cycle the general body of creditors are pooled as one pot. "The agreement of creditors' claims with impact quantum of the pot but it won't impact on the level of assets that fall into it for distribution. "We are aware of undertakings which were provided at the time of the acquisition of the business last May and these funds do not appear to have been invested in the business in the manner in which it was envisaged at the time of the transaction. "The current status of those funds is subject to the litigation that we have already opened."

If we don't beat Dundee United they can win the league at Ibrox.

The wee man's a to credit the club. Wish him the best on his recovery. The best player in the country by far. Steven Naismith Rangers legend

RANGERS is a family — and I fear tomorrow it is going to be torn apart. The focus from the fans will be on the players and I understand that but my football club is about so much more than that. On the field through this horrible time we've slipped up and lost at home to both Kilmarnock and Hearts. There's no question the off-field troubles have impacted on the club and taken their toll. Imagine if it were you at work. Administrators stated jobs had to go but for the best part of three weeks didn't specify exactly whose jobs. I'm not talking about just the playing staff, I mean the entire workforce. The uncertainty has been awful. Tomorrow morning we'll at last have some clarity, painful though it will be. A lot of great people work at Rangers and the club provides a living for 177 full-time staff. At Murray Park, Gordon and Stevie at reception are often the butt of pranks from players but they're part of our team. In the Press and PR department Carol Patton and Stephen Kerr. They've their work cut out with us. Carol has been at Rangers for the best part of 20 years and is a consummate pro. Stephen has been at the club for a decade. These two work tirelessly for Rangers and don't talk to them about an eight-hour working day. I am not exaggerating, on some days it's a 14-hour shift for them. I'm thinking too of people like Laura and Nicola, who deal with the admin for the gaffer and the players. The headlines will be on the players but I fear for decent hard-working people who turn out day after day and work to give their families a decent quality of life. Office staff. Kitchen staff. Cleaning staff. What I am trying to say is that EVERYONE employed by Rangers has been affected by what has happened. It has been an awful time. I have been lucky. Forget the injuries — I have had the job of my dreams. I've lived the dream. I sat in the stands, walked across the red track, crossed the white line on to the grass wearing the jersey I dreamed of pulling on. Signing for Rangers, the team I supported as a kid, was the ultimate joy. That is what makes the current situation so hard to take. A club with a history like Rangers should never have been put in this position, but we have. Now we have to deal with it. I still have a job. I will be back to full fitness in the summer with the help of great medical care and a patient physio team. I owe them, especially Stuart Collie, who has dealt with my last cruciate injury and this one, and has had a big bearing on my Rangers career. After the game yesterday I sat quietly and knew that the hour was coming when many would lose their jobs in the worst possible circumstances. Little notice, nothing to prepare them for the awful news. Just one day they have a job, the next day they won't. In one of the worst recessions in living memory, many will struggle to find another job. That is what hurts most, the thought that people may be thrown on to the scrapheap. If players are handed their P45s, most will find other clubs. Some may not. The one thing that everyone feels is the hurt for Rangers, for our club. I have to single out the gaffer Ally McCoist. The way he has handled this has been remarkable. His leadership qualities have been immense. His quote 'We don't do walking away' has now entered the fabric of Rangers' history. He is still relatively new to management as this is his first season in the hotseat. Like the rest of us he did not see this coming — at least not to the extent it has — but he has handled the situation with tremendous dignity. He has also done his best to protect the players, reassure us all. Such is the mark of the man, he has put us before himself. The gaffer has worked tirelessly behind the scenes while trying to keep training and day-to-day business on the playing side as close to normal as possible. Who carries the burden of the blame? Who is to blame is not that important to someone who has just lost their job. All they want is another job. What we have to do now is move on. Take on board what we have to do. Work within our budgets. Pull together — the entire Rangers workforce, the players, management and, importantly, the fans. Football? Only a game? It's much, much more than that to an awful lot of people. To everyone at Gers, it is their life, their livelihood, a meal on the table and a roof over their heads. Tomorrow that will change. I wish with all my heart that it didn't have to. Read more: http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/sport/4170916/Rangers-is-like-a-family-to-me-but-now-I-fear-were-about-to-be-torn-apart.html#ixzz1o6RjlYdV

Radio Clyde News ‏ @RadioClydeNews Reply Retweet Favorite · PFA's Fraser Wishart says no agreement reached at Murray Park. #Rangers players going home to prepare for tomorrow's match as normal.

Senior Rangers players have held discussions over taking a minimum 25% pay cut in a bid to stave off redundancies, STV has learned. The club’s administrators, Duff and Phelps, are expected to make an announcement by Wednesday over the future of players and staff at Ibrox. With a cash shortfall at the club, it is understood more drastic measures may have to be taken by removing a number of players from the wage bill immediately. Director of football, Gordon Smith, and chief operations officer, Ali Russell, have already agreed to leave the club and will come to the end of their contracts on Wednesday. Rangers owner Craig Whyte, who is currently in Monaco, stated on Monday he expected further job cuts to be made but said the administrators would be “acting in the best long-term interests of the football club.” Speaking on Sunday, manager Ally McCoist said he knew a decision was looming over which players and staff may be asked to leave. "My understanding is that I will meet with Paul Clark, from the administrators Duff and Phelps, whenever he wants," he said. "I imagine it will be early on in the week about what he thinks is the way ahead for Rangers. "Morally, I should not and will not be judge and jury over anyone's future. Having said that, I will help the administrators 100% in any way I can. "Every conversation I have had with Paul Clark and Simon Shipley of Duff and Phelps has been positive. They seem to be knowledgeable and respectful of the size and sensitivity of the job. "Hopefully we will sit down in the next day or two and things will become clearer."

Happy Birthday Brian.

Bedoya and McKay to leave for nominal fees.

Raman Bhardwaj @STVRaman STV has learned Alejandro Bedoya is set to follow Matt McKay out of Ibrox. Rangers in advanced discussion with a club over transfer

Raman Bhardwaj @STVRaman Don't expect to see Craig Whyte at Ibrox for a while , we're told... until administration process is over we reckon.

FOOTBALL showman Milan Mandaric has launched a bid to become the next Mr Rangers. SunSport can reveal the Serb, 73, has noted interest in taking over with Gers' administrators. It's a stunning twist in the story that has rocked Scottish football as the current Sheffield Wednesday chairman looks to take over the stricken champions. Mandaric is one of those who have told the administrators now running Gers they want to take over from the Craig Whyte regime. Former Portsmouth and Leicester chief Mandaric has just emerged not guilty from tax evasion charges alongside his close pal and Spurs boss Harry Redknapp. Now he wants to add Gers to the list of clubs he has bossed. Yesterday Paul Clark of Rangers' administrators Duff & Phelps said: "As administrators we also have a duty to look at other expressions of interest in the club. "To date we have had several such expressions of interest and these will be examined in the forthcoming days and weeks. I will not comment on them individually." SunSport, though, this morning reveals the identity of the man whose desire to buy Gers will intrigue Rangers fans most of all. The multi-millionaire made his fortune in the computer boom in California's Silicon Valley in the 70s. He owned San Jose Earthquakes in the States then looked to European football, owning first Belgian club Charleroi then French outfit Nice. In 1998 he moved to take over Portsmouth and made them a huge success under the leadership of Redknapp. He has since had a tempestuous reign in charge of Leciester before moving to buy troubled Sheffield Wednesday for just £1 and agreeing to settle the club's debts as part of his takeover. There is nothing to stop Mandaric staying put at Hillsborough and also launching an audacious swoop for Rangers. The only barrier would come under the rules of 'common ownership' if the clubs clashed in Europe and with Wednesday languishing in League One that is hugely unlikely. As former Gers director Paul Murray once more tries to piece together a consortium to buy the sticken SPL champs, the proposed Mandaric swoop will spark huge debate amid a fretting Gers support who are now poised to sell out Ibrox for tomorrow's showdown with Kilmarnock. Read more: http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/sport/spl/4135558/Milan-Mandaric-I-want-to-buy-Rangers.html#ixzz1mand5xWd

Shane McMahon anybody.

Neither are good enough in the long term.

:lol:

Broadfoot

Raman Bhardwaj @STVRaman All asking re Cousin. he's not a Rangers player. He's agreed terms until end of season, registration not sorted yet and won't play tomorrow.