Naismith and Whittaker take 75% wage cut

Chief football writer

Friday 9 March 2012

STEVEN Whittaker and Steven Naismith last night led the way by agreeing to take a 75% cut in their wages as part of Rangers' administrators' attempts to secure the massive savings required to allow the club to fulfil its fixtures.

Steven Naismith along with Steven whittaker will take a wage cut until the end of the season

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Michael Grant

The pair, both currently out with injuries, are part of a group of seven senior players who have been asked to take the swingeing cut. Among the others are the highly rated midfielder Steven Davis, the Scotland goalkeeper Allan McGregor and defender Carlos Bocanegra, the US national team captain.

It is understood the reductions will be in force until the end of the season and are deemed crucial if administrators Duff & Phelps are to meet the £1m per month targets required to steer the club away from possible liquidation.Earlier in the day, a source close to the talks had suggested the senior players had still to hear the guarantees that if they agreed to the cuts it would mean no job losses for any Ibrox staff. Some of the players' agents were baffled that, despite Duff and Phelps' stated desire for urgency, they would not find the time for a meeting with the group at any time between Tuesday evening and yesterday afternoon. There was anger, too, that the players were asked to take the massive cuts without Duff & Phelps being prepared to reveal their short-term business plan which would guarantee that the salary sacrifices would save jobs across the club.In return for agreeing to have their wages slashed the senior Ibrox players will have "trigger points" introduced in their altered contracts giving them the freedom to leave if a suitable bid is received in the close season. That is a protection their agents have sought in case Rangers' financial mess shows no sign of ending over the summer.The overall cuts package would mean the middle-earning players accepting a 50% cut and the lower earners a 25% reduction for the next three months. Any administrator can make people redundant but they cannot impose wage cuts or deferrals, which have to be agreed."We're not quite there but we're nearly there," said Clark. "We are hopeful, in fact I'd say confident, that we're in the final stages of that process. It's going to deliver very substantial cuts, cost-cutting of around £1m per month, and I think that is something we will have achieved by this weekend."What we have looked at with the players is varying certain contracts so that there will be trigger points, so that if an offer is made for them they can move. But I don't think that should be considered as meaning that any or all of the players want to leave the club in the summer, it's just a safety mechanism from their point in exchange for the very substantial amounts that they are giving up, to give them some flexibility depending on what the new ownership structure looks like when the club comes out of of administration. "I can understand the players' concern but certainly I don't think the fans should assume that that immediately means a bunch of the players are going to go in the summer or indeed in any point in the future for little or no value."Remarkably Rangers are in their 25th day in administration and not a single player has been made redundant, with only director of football Gordon Smith and chief operating officer Ali Russell cut from the wage bill via redundancies. Gregg Wylde and Mervan Celik left by mutual consent.Duff and Phelps have been accused of dithering and procrastination by allowing the huge players' wage bill to continue unaltered despite a shortfall of £4.5m having to be met between now and the end of the season, but Clark last night tried to explain their position."We could have gone into the playing side of the football club and made some swinging cuts early on," he said. "But . . .in terms of what that would have left Ally McCoist and the rest of the players in terms of playing on a Saturday it would have left a club denuded of talent. and more unable to perform at the highest level. What we've done instead, now that we know the amounts we have to save, is to approach the players and discuss with them. We can't impose cuts upon them. We've talked about what cuts we would need and discussed with them what terms they would require to accept those cuts."Earlier Clark's colleague, David Whitehouse, had said instant player redundancies would have been "folly". "The scale of the cost-cutting required is very substantial indeed and making a few players redundant along the way would not have achieved the necessary savings."Meanwhile, the Bolton Wanderers manager Owen Coyle said he would await a FIFA directive on any club's ability to signing Wylde outwith a transfer window before deciding whether to rekindle his interest in the 20-year-old.

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Naismith and Whittaker take 75% wage cut

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