Players will not have to be sold, says new chairman

11 April 2012

Rangers will not have to sell players in January to service the club's debt, according to new chairman Alastair Johnston.

It was feared that the club's bankers, Lloyds, would lean on the Ibrox board to trade one or more of their better players when the transfer window opens in order to reduce current debts of £31million.

However, at the club's AGM at Ibrox yesterday, Johnston, while revealing that the search for new owners of the club continues, allayed fears by saying: "As far as the bulk of the Rangers support is concerned, the relevant news is that the plan does not oblige us to sell any players in the January window.

"If any players do depart, it will be at the volition of the Rangers executive and management team.

"If the Rangers management team believes that we can beneficially trade players in January, we will have the freedom to do so provided we meet the constraints of the plan that we have agreed to adopt.

"The bank has agreed that the club's only obligation is to operate within a credit facility that reduces by £1 million per year."

At a relatively amicable AGM, chief executive Martin Bain revealed that manager Walter Smith, assistant Ally McCoist and first-team coach Kenny McDowall, who are all out of contract in January, would work on without new deals.

Bain then handed Ibrox fans yet another boost when he revealed that he is in talks with Kris Boyd about extending his contract beyond the end of the season.

He said: "It has been a difficult time for the club in the last few months and there wasn't the time to sit down with players' representatives and have properly-informed discussions.

"However, I am now in the position to negotiate and discuss players' contracts.

"Over the last fortnight, I have spoken to virtually all the representatives of players who are coming out of contract and I have been made aware of their intentions and those discussions have progressed.

"In particular with Kris Boyd, I spoke to his representative and I am aware of what Kris sees as acceptable as a contract.

"I have digested that and I'm in the process of continuing with discussions, but it has only happened recently."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in