The Rangers squad was asked on Thursday to consider pay cuts of around 15% until summer 2015 as cost-cutting begins in earnest at Ibrox. The request, put to the players as a possible alternative to some having to be sold, was widely rejected.
One objection that is understood to have been raised in a dressing room discussion is that the directors making the proposal were still on full pay and were in part responsible for the club’s current problems.
The Rangers squad was asked on Thursday to consider pay cuts of around 15% until summer 2015 as cost-cutting begins in earnest at Ibrox. The request, put to the players as a possible alternative to some having to be sold, was widely rejected.
One objection that is understood to have been raised in a dressing room discussion is that the directors making the proposal were still on full pay and were in part responsible for the club’s current problems.
Manager Ally McCoist was told by chief executive Graham Wallace earlier this week he needs to cut his budget. The players’ wage bill at the Scottish League One side currently stands between £6m and £7m per annum. Manager McCoist has already agreed to a 50 per cent cut in his annual earnings of £825,000.
A club spokesman told BBC Scotland: ‘The manager and chief executive continue to examine how Rangers can live within their means.’ And last month Wallace admitted that the League One club’s cost base was too high, ‘even for a top-flight club’.
Wallace has decided savage cutbacks are needed to prevent the runaway League 1 leaders lurching towards the threat of administration, despite a £22 million cash injection just 13 months ago through a share issue promoted by his departed predecessor Charles Green.
A wage cut would allow McCoist to keep the bulk of his squad together, with the alternative being paying players off or selling others. Rangers will be reluctant to shell out six-figure sums to pay-up the contracts of squad players and raising money through a transfer is also fraught with difficulties.