Amid all the posturing, Rangers and Ally McCoist will simply have to reach an agreement in the old fashioned way over the departing Ibrox manager's "severance".

 

What neither party will desire, surely, is for the matter to drag, with McCoist soldiering on as a lame-duck manager.

No doubt McCoist may be playing canny, having taken legal advice. In his position, who wouldn't? But if McCoist has said it once he has said it a hundred times: "Nothing is more important than the club." It cannot be in Rangers' best interests for their resignation-tendering manager to limp on in the role.

Neither party can win in this. Imagine if, remarkably, McCoist and Rangers remained at contractual loggerheads and he stayed in place while the club continued to lag behind Hearts in the Championship. There would be howls for change, and McCoist himself would be seen to be hampering Rangers. There are reputations in danger on all sides in this.

If Rangers feel uncomfortable, they can simply place McCoist on gardening leave, and install a new manager, interim or otherwise. That can be an expensive way to do it but, either way, McCoist surely will receive some kind of reduced compensation for his departure. Yes, he has resigned, and ostensibly broken the contract, but lawyers can find all sorts of ways to place the onus on the other party. Few, moreover, know the small print of McCoist's employment conditions at the club.

In Rangers' fractured state it is hard to see Mike Ashley not having a major role to play in the weeks ahead at Ibrox. An increasingly empty Ibrox boardroom has been vacated in recent times by Graham Wallace, Philip Nash and Norman Crighton, leaving non-executive chairman David Somers to flit in and out when time allows.

Ashley and his place man, Derek Llambias, a Rangers director, appear to be the power brokers to take the situation forward. James and Sandy Easdale are also in situ on the two different Rangers boards but Ashley's influence - like him or loathe him - appears the key.

The role of the Newcastle United owner at Ibrox is extraordinary. Ashley owns less than 10 per cent of Rangers and is a relative Johnny Come Lately but, thanks to Charles Green and his Ashley deals, as well as the tycoon's own wealth, he has marched into the place and is laying down the law. Like many aspects of Rangers these days, it seems pretty questionable.

Arguably, the bigger story just now remains the club's ownership structure. Until that agonised scenario arrives at some sort of peace, Rangers may well remain in torment. As things stand the shareholder factions remain, the fans are in uproar and the Ibrox resources are drained. Structurally, Rangers are wounded, limp, paralysed.

That is off the park. On it - and this is germane to McCoist - many believe that things could be a lot better. McCoist, a lucky man, has many qualities, but being a football manager has not appeared foremost among them. The grim on-field evidence of the past three years has made many Rangers supporters pine for McCoist to leave, as much as he remains a legend at the club.

It is true that you judge a manager by many circumstances, and McCoist's have been extremely difficult. But set aside from everything is the poor quality of his team's football, with seemingly decent players. A series of setbacks, most recently twice against humble Alloa, has left McCoist short of admirers in this context. It has been hard to believe that better management and better coaching could not have improved this current Rangers squad.

If the McCoist resignation mess is cleared up, and he duly leaves, then the former Motherwell manager Stuart McCall will be one name that Rangers will surely look to. He worked minor miracles over three seasons at Fir Park and, as unfashionable as McCall sometimes appeared as a modern manager, he has buffed up his credentials in Scotland pretty impressively. He will also come - in relative terms - cheap.

McCall, however, will know full well the political instability and acrimony that is currently engulfing Rangers. He may not fancy that aspect of it at all. So, too, will Derek McInnes be quoted, yet he may hold similar reservations.

Billy Davies, a former Rangers player, and currently out of work, in one way is the perfect answer - at least in terms of coaching - to Rangers' needs. Davies compiled a stack of manager of the month awards in England over various tours with Preston North End, Derby County and Nottingham Forest, and is clearly a gifted manager. His problem is he is a permanent hand grenade, just waiting for the pin to be removed.

More will emerge in the days ahead about the precise reasons for McCoist's resignation - but unhappiness with the boardroom influences and politics around the club will certainly be listed among them. As the fans' clamour has grown McCoist has surely felt uneasy about being seen to be a cog - or even a puppet - for the various characters in the Ibrox boardroom.

McCoist's reputation will surely survive these recent, galling years as Rangers manager. His exploits loom much larger over three decades, not just three years. Is Willie Miller any less of an Aberdeen legend, having endured some very grim times as manager of the club in the 1990s? Of course not. McCoist, barring some embarrassing bickering or money-grabbing in the days ahead, will surely be treated the same.

The truth is, Rangers may find a more able manager out there. But that is the lesser task while trying to end the ferocious civil war that is tearing the club apart.