Rangers duo explain their decisions to leave

Chief football writer

Monday 25 June 2012

MERCENARIES are supposed to be cold and heartless, making decisions based only on how much hard cash they can get out of anything, rather than letting emotions get in the way.

Steven Whitaker at yesterday's press conference at a Glasgow hotel. Picture: SNS

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Michael Grant

By those criteria, the two men who walked out on newco Rangers yesterday do not fit the bill. Steven Naismith and Steven Whittaker know plenty of criticism will come their way from supporters deeply unimpressed by their decision not to allow their contracts to be transferred from oldco to newco. But no-one can legitimately accuse them of doing it lightly, or not caring. Stress was written across their faces yesterday.

Naismith spoke with some anger about how it had come to this at the club he had supported since childhood. Whittaker has a different background but he found it even harder to suppress his feelings as the pair held a joint press conference at a Glasgow hotel. Whittaker spoke for nearly 10 minutes and his voice got thinner, and his eyes a little redder, the longer he went on. When he was asked to express exactly why he was finding it so hard, he choked up. After a nervous sip of water, and a long pause, he said simply: "I don't really want to answer that question . . . I don't think I can." He politely made his excuses and left the room.The duo have left Rangers for their own good, of course. Whittaker is 28 and Naismith 25. They are in their peak years and chose career development over their affection for Rangers. Some supporters will not forgive them but many will understand that the potential to move to the English Premier League as a free agent – both Everton and WBA have been linked with Naismith before – is a tad more attractive than going down with the ship at Ibrox. First Division (at best) football next season, no guarantee of an Old Firm game for at least a year, no European ties for at least three years, owners who have made a deeply unimpressive early impression on the players: sadly for Rangers it seems inevitable that others will follow Naismith and Whittaker.Those who do should at least emulate them by showing supporters respect, and turning up for a clearly difficult press conference to reveal their reasons. "I have had sleepless nights and endless conversations with my wife and family trying to come up with the best outcome for myself," said Whittaker. "It has been very stressful. I had a couple of short breaks with my wife when I tried to relax away from what was going on. But when you don't know your future it is hard to do that. It has been a hard summer. I hope I can walk away with my head held high, and that I don't owe anyone anything. Different people will have different opinions. I thought I would be ending my career at Rangers. I signed for five years and would have turned 32 in the summer of when my contract ran out."That contract – given to him by Craig Whyte before anyone realised the taxman wasn't getting a sniff of it – was worth more than £20,000 a week. Whittaker was one of the senior players who agreed to 75% of that being slashed between March and May, in a cost-cutting measure intended to avoid the need for compulsory redundancies and help deliver a company voluntary arrangement (CVA). "We took the pay cut and that was the loyalty we showed to the club. That [trying to save jobs and the club] was the whole point of doing it. I hope people remember that as it was a massive thing for the boys to do."Naismith expanded on that point and spoke with barely concealed frustration that the gesture had counted for nothing. The consortium fronted by Charles Green now own a newco Rangers, rather than the old company rescued by a CVA. Although widespread redundancies were avoided, the club's historic timeline was broken."We could have sat and said 'we're not taking cuts, pay us our wages'," said Naismith. "We entered into contracts in good faith and expected them to be fulfilled. They weren't, through no fault of the squad, and I'm massively proud to have been part of a squad willing to do that for a club they loved."My loyalty was to Rangers Football Club. That was the team which signed me and the one I took a 75% pay cut for. This is a new company which started only a matter of weeks ago. The loyalty I had was with Rangers and I've never met anyone from this new company that has formed. I don't think I can move forward on those terms, really."This has been the biggest decision of my career and one that I haven't taken lightly. I've had to sit down with the people closest to me and work out what's best. When you're at Rangers, winning things and playing in Europe, everything's great. But you have to take into consideration the career you've got. It probably hasn't sunk in yet that I'm not a Rangers player any more . . ."The pair will attempt to arrange training facilities somewhere and instruct their agents to find them clubs. Neither will be out of pocket but, despite what the cynics will say, it was clear each had paid an emotional price.

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Rangers duo explain their decisions to leave

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