ALLY McCOIST, the Rangers manager, does not expect to lose any players in the remaining days of the transfer window despite the latest grim financial forecast for the Ibrox club.
Rangers yesterday confirmed their intention to try to raise £4m via a share issue and warned they faced an "uncertain" future if there was not sufficient take-up of the offer. That would lead to creditors not being paid and the directors seeking emergency funding "which may or may not be available".
Despite a worsening financial picture - with only 23,000 season tickets sold - McCoist's squad has remained largely intact over the summer, with the manager able to bring in five new players to replace the five who have departed. Selling assets such as Lee Wallace or Lewis Macleod before Monday night's transfer deadline would ease the club's financial predicament in the short term but McCoist, who would only discuss football matters at his weekly press conference, did not envisage losing anyone from his squad.
"I would obviously hope as a manager [that bids would be turned down]," he said. "If I'm happy with my squad then you don't want to see it being depleted. But I do know what's involved in football and I know that sometimes people make decisions that can alter your squad.
"I can understand that, but I would hope that no bids come in for any of the players. We'll just have to wait and see what happens. If we did lose someone we'd just have to regroup and get on with it. I'm expecting to go with the squad we've got.
"I'm happy with the squad I've got. In an ideal world, we'd have tweaked it a wee bit here and there but we have a good of players. We have strengthened up front and at the back."
McCoist revealed he would have liked to have signed even more players but realised that was now unlikely. "Like every other manager and coach in the country, I would like to add a little bit here and there. Without stating the obvious, in the current climate I don't see much incoming activity. But if we don't have the opportunity to do that then I'm delighted with the boys I've got."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article