Steven Naismith.

[ForeverBlue_Since91 2,895]

Steven Naismith has maintained he will not back down from his legal dispute with Rangers and instead insisted he owes the Ibrox club nothing.

The Everton star is one of a posse of former players defending themselves against legal action brought by Ibrox chief executive Charles Green after they quit the club on free transfers in the summer.

Green wants the new clubs of Naismith, Steven Whittaker, Jamie Ness, Sone Aluko and Kyle Lafferty to pay compensation for signing players who walked out after objecting to their contracts being switched from the Rangers oldco to the newco.

The Ibrox club will learn in January if they have the right to pursue compensation via the SFA. If that is unsuccessful, Green has threatened to pursue the cash via the courts.

Unable to have their international clearance certificates transferred to their new clubs in the meantime, Aluko, Lafferty and Ness are counter-suing the Ibrox club for ‘constructive dismissal’.

Naismith says he wants no part in suing Rangers but is determined to defend himself from legal threats.

And, despite accepting a 75-per-cent wage cut when the club entered administration, he insists he is not after a penny.

‘I think 90 per cent of people that talk about this don’t know half of what happened,’ said Naismith in Glasgow.

‘I took legal advice and made the decisions I made.

‘I’m not looking to go after the club for money for 90 days’ pay or anything like that — it’s not something I’ve thought about or been interested in.

‘There’s so much going on, so many different cases.

‘People think it’s one big thing and everyone’s name gets thrown in the pot.

‘People want to say things as they think they know everything. But the people closest to me know what happened — and what’s gone on, on my part anyway.

‘You’re never going to make everyone happy.’

Taking advice from lawyers, Naismith admitted the prospect of counter-suing Rangers was raised.

Already unable to walk through the door at Ibrox amid the bitterness, he opted instead to concentrate on his new career at Everton.

And, frustrated that fans rarely mention the financial sacrifices players made when they took substantial wage cuts to keep others in their jobs, Naismith insists he never intended to leave Rangers and would still have been there but for financial meltdown in February.

‘In a couple of years, people will look back and say they did that (wage cuts) for the good of the club,’ he said. ‘People might think there were other agendas or we were only doing it for certain reasons, but the players know what we were trying to do at the outset. That was to try to stop the club from getting liquidated.’

[justiston 91]

See no quotes, so can't take it as gospel...

[Gaz92 966]

See no quotes, so can't take it as gospel...

It's not as if its anything new or different, why would it not be believed?

[JamieG54 812]

Really dislike him now

[ForeverBlue_Since91 2,895]

"Naismith says he wants no part in suing Rangers but is determined to defend himself from legal threats"

So is he trying to sue Charles Green?

[trueblue68 2,497]

His decision. He can't call himself a Rangers fan anymore.

[justiston 91]

for some reason only saw the phone picture and not the following text...so now see the quotes.

Although, all Naismith is saying he will not accept a personel lawsuit or whatever. We should be going for Everton, not players.

[jafrfc 614]

These players who all left for nothing live in a fantasy land. They seem to believe that years from now all will be forgiven and we'll give them a standing ovation if they were to come back to Ibrox.

[elephants stoned 2,994]

Hes harping on about the wage cuts as if he starved himself to help the club, he doesnt mention the fact that the wages cuts were in return for a huglely reduced transfer fee which he and the other backstabbing scum agreed to then refused to honour and ran off and left us when we needed them most. Steven Naismith = scum.

[8watp8 254]

Rangers fan ahaha. suck my big loyal blue cock ye fucking judas cunt. never welcome in ibrox ever again, you or the other traitors. the "looking after family" didn't seem to concern the two super lee's or big neil, true rangers men. wish the guy would just stop mentioning us he doesn't deserve to speak about the rangers.

[JCDBigBear 11,025]

Let's put this into perspective about these players. Let's assume they were on £20k per week which was approx £500k after tax for 12 months. They take a 3 month pay cut which left them with "only" approx £410k for the year. Pro-rata the figures for lesser amounts. They negotiated vastly reduced transfer fees to kick in after the end of the season and the promise they would be sold. You can bet your last dime that they also ensured they got the "missing" salary returned after they were sold.

What I notice is that you always get the "people who know me are aware of what happened" type quote. Well if there is some mitigating scenario which differs from my version then why don't they tell the fans? If I thought my name was getting dragged through the gutter, I'd broadcast the facts. The players' silence is a strong clue.

[Gaz92 966]

Let's put this into perspective about these players. Let's assume they were on £20k per week which was approx £500k after tax for 12 months. They take a 3 month pay cut which left them with "only" approx £410k for the year. Pro-rata the figures for lesser amounts. They negotiated vastly reduced transfer fees to kick in after the end of the season and the promise they would be sold. You can bet your last dime that they also ensured they got the "missing" salary returned after they were sold.

What I notice is that you always get the "people who know me are aware of what happened" type quote. Well if there is some mitigating scenario which differs from my version then why don't they tell the fans? If I thought my name was getting dragged through the gutter, I'd broadcast the facts. The players' silence is a strong clue.

Agree with the majority of your post, but the idea that they got the money back after they moved to a new club? Not sure where that comes from.

[ForeverBlue_Since91 2,895]

Agree with the majority of your post, but the idea that they got the money back after they moved to a new club? Not sure where that comes from.

Their wages went back to normal after a few months. Ally McCoist never took a wage cut he didn't take any pay at all.

But you don't see Ally McCoist going to another job do you? McCoist could have easily left Rangers and had a easy life and a good career in media etc where he would have probably been paid alot more money than what he is at Rangers.

[JCDBigBear 11,025]

Agree with the majority of your post, but the idea that they got the money back after they moved to a new club? Not sure where that comes from.

You misunderstand me, my point was that when negotiating the reduced transfer fee I would wager that they ensured their loss would have been made up at such time. Bear in mind that the reason they went for reduced transfer fees was to give them better bargaining powers for increased wages and a bigger signing-on fee from their new clubs. That was the reason for the reduced transfer fees. They would be far better off financially after their short-term deals with RFC.

[Drumloyal 15,614]

These scumbags need to realise they are not the regular guy in the street, who, if dropping 50% of their wages, would leave them unable to feed their families. Dropping from £300 p/w to £150/pw would put most families in danger of losing their homes....these delusional traitors dropped from what?.. £7k p/w to let's say £2.5k p/w?? Wow, what a sacrifice....however did they survive on only that? Scum, each and every one of them.

[King Jela 21,765]

He's a rhat cunt.

[LiverpoolBlue 1,414]

Let him rot, he isn't exactly setting the heather on fire for Everton.

[mabawsa 888]

No mention of Rangers paying him during the 2 seasons he was out injured . Funny that! Nor no comment when he pulled the Press conference stunt to tell us and the world that RFC was no more! That was the cunning, sleakit and calculated. Try telling that to the worldwide Rangers family who at that time where doing everything to kept their club alive. Never a True Rangers man.

[Figo 91]

in total conflict with his interview last night!

[Edmiston Drive 3,846]

"Naismith says he wants no part in suing Rangers but is determined to defend himself from legal threats"

So is he trying to sue Charles Green?

In you OP the above statement it was not quoted that naismith said this.

[jack1690 793]

Another rhat fenian "journalist" making up pish, more like.

[boss 1,941]

Hypocritical traitor.

[nachothelegend 1,932]

I dont believe any pf the pish the mhedia spout about us.

Come to think of it I dont believe any of the players who jumped ship either.

[IanFerguson2012 123]

There are people all over the country taking pay cuts or no rises to keep their businesses afloat. He should be ashamed of himself & probably is so is going the other way to try & convince himself he did the right thing. He is no Rangers fan.

[scarkev 3,540]

Naismith can come out with all the nonsense he likes...fact is I dont think any of us would begrudge him his move to Everton and not wishing to play in division 3 if he had done it the right way. Transfer over then take advantage of the minimum release clause that had been agreed and at least the club would have got something and he could have left with his head held high and always be welcome back.

What he did was spit in the faces of the club, staff and fans who supported him through 2 serious injuries and helped make him the player he was. The fact is he did it for greed...The extra £££'s that he got signing as a free transfer may have been worth it in the short term to him but he will never be welcome back at Ibrox and in the long term that would affect me more.

The sob stories are all coming out from these players now to try and gain public support against future court action and once again Mr Green is made out to be the bad guy....bet he loves it!