Lee McCulloch says Rangers stars will stay if a buyer is found

[ian1964 10,720]

LEE McCulloch today insisted Rangers stars will commit their long-term futures to the Ibrox club if a suitable buyer is found.

 

The deadline for bids for the stricken Glasgow giants came at five oâ??clock last night â?? with four interested parties making final offers.

 

And Gers administrators Paul Clark and David Whitehouse hope to be able to name the preferred bidder at the start of next week.

 

Multi-millionaire Scots businessman Brian Kennedy is also waiting in the wings if the Blue Knights consortium fronted by Paul Murray fails to gain control.

 

McCulloch, who has taken a sizeable pay cut to save the jobs of non-playing staff, revealed the players are monitoring developments with interest.

 

Many of Ally McCoistâ??s first-team squad have had clauses inserted in their contracts allowing them to leave for cut-price fees in the summer.

 

And stars like Kyle Lafferty, Allan McGregor and Steven Naismith are being tipped to leave Scotland for Barclays Premier League or npower Championship clubs.

 

And last night there were reports that Sone Alukoâ??s agent was in talks with an official from Spanish outfit Rayo Vallecano. But former Scotland international McCulloch believes many of the players want the Rangers finances to get sorted out â?? so they can stay put.

 

He said: â??The players who have been linked with moves away from Rangers canâ??t help that. Nor can you blame the clubs who are making the bids.

 

â??But there are no issues with the commitment of the players who are at the club just now. They all want to be at the club and they all want the situation to get sorted out as soon as possible.

 

â??We have got a bit of momentum going now. I think it did affect us when the club first went into administration. We just want to sew up second place and bring what has been a very difficult season to a finish. What we want is for a new owner to come in who will back the manager and back the players. We just want to achieve success on the park and drive the club forward in the future.

 

â??The players will think long and hard about their futures. There is a lot of wild speculation, but we are all completely committed to helping get the club through this.

 

â??I think the players have shown their commitment to Rangers by taking the steps that we have to safeguard the future of the staff at the club. Everybody just wants everything to get sorted out.

 

â??Our performances have picked up in the last couple of games and our immediate aim is to keep that going.â?

 

http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/sport/lee-mcculloch-says-rangers-stars-will-stay-if-a-buyer-is-found-1.1157301

[ian1964 10,720]

LEE McCulloch today warned Rangers team-mates being targeted by English clubs to think carefully about quitting the crisis-hit Ibrox giants – despite growing uncertainty over their future.

 

McCulloch is not surprised to see players like Kyle Lafferty, Allan McGregor and Steven Naismith have attracted the attention of predatory Barclays Premier League outfits.

 

West Brom boss Roy Hodgson is keen on Scotland internationalists McGregor and Naismith and this week had a £2million bid for the latter turned down by Gers administrators.

 

And winger Sone Aluko, out of contract at the end of the season, is a target for Spanish outfit Rayo Vallecano.

 

However, the best Light Blues stars could be snapped up for a fraction of their market value as a direct result of the serious financial difficulties the Glasgow club is currently experiencing. The players have taken massive pay cuts of up to 75 per cent to safeguard the jobs of non-playing staff – but a condition of that agreement is they can leave for cut-price fees in the summer.

 

For instance, Lafferty, whose situation is being monitored by Bristol City boss Derek McInnes as well as other clubs south of Hadrian’s Wall, can be snapped up for just £500,000.

 

Like every supporter, McCulloch, who volunteered to play for his boyhood heroes for free during this difficult spell, is concerned about what the future holds for the 54-times Scottish champions.

 

Yet the 33-year-old believes his team-mates would be foolish to give up on the chance to represent the world-famous institution easily.

 

The former Motherwell player plied his trade with Wigan Athletic for six seasons, two of which were spent in the English Premiership, and values what he currently has at Rangers.

 

“I have played down in England before and I think that makes me appreciate what we have here at Rangers,” he said. “This club is huge. I played for a Premiership club during my time down in England, but it wasn’t a big club. I will take Rangers any day of the week.

 

“It is a fantastic club to play for, a special club. The fans are incredible, you have the chance to play for trophies every season and in Europe.

 

“Having the chance to play here is something I will savour for my entire life. It is a lot to give up on and I think the players must realise that.

 

“There is a real unity in the squad. The boys are all together in this and we don’t want to lose anybody.”

 

He added: “Obviously, there are players with higher values and other clubs may come in and try and get them on the cheap. You can’t blame the club making the offer for that or the player for the interest.

 

“But I think the players will think long and hard about their future. We have got a dressing room full of Rangers fans whose ambition is to play for us.

 

“All the lads want to be here, they want to stay here and they want to play for the manager. We just want to be successful.”

 

McCulloch, who has played up front to devastating effect in Rangers’ last two matches against Celtic at Ibrox and Motherwell at Fir Park, revealed all the players remain hopeful the future of the Ibrox club can be safeguarded soon.

 

The final deadline for bids was at five o’clock last night and club joint administrators Paul Clark and David Whitehouse hope to single out the preferred bidder from the interested parties by the start of next week.

 

However, with the outcome of the HMRC tax tribunal still not decided and mystery shrouding the £24 million deal with Ticketus, the possibility of the club being put into liquidation remains a very real one.

 

However, utility man Lee stressed that he, along with every member of Ally McCoist’s first-team squad, is desperate to see the stewardship of the club pass from current owner Craig Whyte to a new benefactor or benefactors sooner rather than later.

 

He explained: “As a group of players, we just want an owner to come in who will back the boys and back the manager.

 

“The sooner a new owner comes in and takes over the better as far as we are concerned.

 

“We just want the club to get a buyer sorted as soon as possible, so we can keep everyone who is in the dressing room at this moment in time at the club here, and start pushing forward again in the future.”

 

McCulloch netted a last-gasp winner in the hard-fought 2-1 triumph over third-placed Motherwell at the weekend and is hoping to be involved in attack in the SPL game against St Mirren at Ibrox on Saturday.

 

The former Scotland internationalist is confident the off-field distractions, which have clearly hampered Rangers’ efforts on the park in recent weeks, will not stop them getting a victory.

 

He said: “Our performances in our last two games have been a vast improvement. We haven’t beaten St Mirren this season.

 

“We drew with them at Ibrox back in October, when they scored an injury-time equaliser, and we lost to them at Paisley in December.

 

“On their day they are a match for any team in this division. We will have to play to the standard that we did against Celtic and Motherwell to get another three points.”

 

http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/sport/talking-rangers-hero-mcculloch-says-lifelong-fans-should-remember-why-they-moved-to-ibrox-instead-of-looking-south-lee-has-a-clear-blue-message-for-stars-the-winning-feeling-is-unbeatable-1.1157310

[caseyjones 0]

RANGERS players will ask for a meeting with the club's prospective new owners next week to seek detail and answers about their vision of the way ahead.

 

 

Allan McGregor, Steven Davis, Steven Naismith and all of the other senior players can leave for bargain transfer fees this summer because of clauses they negotiated in return for taking pay cuts to save redundancies in March. Players could seek to utilise those clauses if they do not like what they hear from the preferred bidders who will be chosen in the next few days by administrators Duff & Phelps. The players and their union, PFA Scotland, also believe their contracts will become null and void – and the squad could leave immediately and for free – if Rangers go into liquidation and are reformed as a "newco".

 

 

Of the four bidders who submitted their proposals on Wednesday, a bid from a German sports company was eliminated yesterday. Of the three still in contention, Paul Murray's Blue Knights are favoured by many players because Murray and some of his partners are known to them. The alternative bids from Singapore and the USA have been shrouded in secrecy, with little or no information revealed about who is behind them, how much money they have, or what their plans are for Rangers' future.

 

One source close to the senior players told Herald Sport: "They are worried. They don't know who's going to move into this club or who's going to buy it. Going by the talk among the players the Blue Knights is the best offer because they know some of the individuals involved and they feel a bit more secure with that one. Life could continue. At least they know the individuals in the Blue Knights and they are a bit more comfortable with that."

 

The Blue Knights and the bid from Singapore are both known to want to preserve Rangers in its current form via a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA), rather than any form of full or partial liquidation and formation of a newco. The Americans' have not publicly committed to a CVA. Refashioning Rangers as a new company would lead to penalties including a three-year spell of ineligibility from European football and possibly points deductions over more than one season as a condition for entry to the Scottish Premier League.

 

"No European football for three years and starting SPL seasons with a 10 or 15 point penalty [a possible punishment for becoming a newco] is not appealing to any player," the Ibrox source continued. "That's why they dug in for lower transfer fees because it gives them a chance to secure a deal in an open market."

 

Davis, McGregor, Naismith, Steven Whittaker and the other highest-earning players all agreed to take 75% wage cuts. The squad's middle- earning players took 50% reductions and the lower earners and youth players agreed to 25% cuts. But the reduced rates apply only until June 1, after which they are scheduled to revert to their original wage levels.

 

Although debts potentially owed to existing staff were not included in the extensive statement to creditors issued by Duff & Phelps yesterday, PFA Scotland's view is the value of players' outstanding contracts also count as debts. Therefore the players would have a vote on whether or not the club accepts a CVA.

 

"They would get a vote after a case HMRC took against Portsmouth's first administration," said PFA Scotland chief executive Fraser Wishart. "The ruling backed the administrators' decision to give each player a vote for the residual value of his contract. So, for example, if a player has three years left on his contract the value of that three years is their voting right. So count up the value of all the players' contracts and they actually have quite a substantial vote.

 

"They're not creditors yet but the argument is that, if the club goes into liquidation, Player X is a creditor for the remaining value of his deal and has a vote for that amount. So if we're talking about HMRC being owed £15m or Ticketus being owed £25m, that's the value of their vote. The value of the players' vote will be pretty hefty too, so they still have an influence. It applies to every player who has an outstanding contract."

 

In the next few days Duff & Phelps will confer preferred bidder status on either The Blue Knights or the consortia from the USA or Singapore. Wishart will quickly move to request a meeting with whichever party is chosen. He will outline the players' anxieties and seek reassurances about what the prospective owners plan to do with Rangers. "Whenever a preferred bidder is appointed we will make sure we have a meeting with them and the players will ensure that they meet them too, to ask what the vision and strategy is," he said.

 

"The players are hopeful the administrators will choose the right person because they want to stay. They want to be part of this, part of a new dawn for Rangers. Most of the guys would be in no hurry to leave in normal circumstances.

 

"Each individual will ask himself 'am I convinced by these guys, these new owners'. How's the team going to look? Are you going to build a team, are you going to try to keep everyone, what's the vision?' It might well be that one or two have to go as the club has to realise an asset or two. But the players want to be convinced there's a future, and they want to stay."

 

http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/football/player-power.17237143

 

The part in bold is an interesting angle which I haven't seen discussed before but which could carry quite a bit of influence in certain circumstances.

 

Even when we get a new buyer, unless they are of the sugar-daddy variety, the wage structure will need a massive overhaul as it has been shown, and still is, that we can't make ends meet when paying £20k+ in the SPL.

 

A huge shock to the system is inevitable, whether it is felt most keenly by the fans or the players remains to be seen, but I would be very surprised if the squad doesn't see massive changes prior to us taking to the field on August 4.

Edited April 6, 2012 by caseyjones