ALLY McCOIST says he was neither "disappointed" nor "surprised" that Rangers revealed details of his salary in their annual accounts this week.
The manager is to take a significant cut in his wages, which were declared in the club's accounts to be a total of £825,858 in the 13 months to June 30, 2013. Next year, he will be rewarded for his efforts with just over £400,000, with the wage bill for his coaching team also cut to £700k per annum.
This was the first time Rangers have posted details of a manager's remuneration in their results and, when asked why, McCoist replied: "I can't answer that. I'm not saying I'm outraged, because I'm not. It [salary information] is in and I just have to deal with it. Only the people who are responsible for putting it in will be able to answer the question. I'm not having a go at them - they had their reasons for doing it, I can't explain the reasons.
"From the point of view of myself and my staff, we have nothing to hide and we nothing to be afraid of. We are as loyal to this club and its support as humanly possible and the fans need to know that. Fans will have griped about players' wages and manager and coaches' salaries - I understand that, that's life - but the important thing that I would like to get across to the support is they can 100% trust the management staff to do their best."
McCoist's decision to take a cut in salary comes a year after he worked for free for several months, but he insists it is not related to the figures released on Tuesday. "There's a lot of talk about the accounts and things within them," he said. "The first time I was asked about it [a wage cut] was when one of you boys [the press] asked whether I was worried about the accounts. I didn't feel I had any reason to be worried. We were told we were in reasonable shape and this was to be expected.
"I was then asked if I would be willing to take a wage cut and I said 'absolutely'. We feel where we are at the moment in terms of the club and the position in the league - by that I mean league status - it's the right thing to do. We're not looking for any pats on the back because any Rangers supporter would do the same."
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