The manager: Sleep walking

It has not come to that quite yet, but his connection to Rangers is hanging by a thread. The club yesterday passed into the hands of a consortium headed by a man for whom McCoist will be unable to work. He will remain as manager only if the club is quickly sold again to Walter Smith's group. McCoist has never been convinced by Green, to the point that it has become increasingly clear around Ibrox that one or other of them could be at the club for the medium to long-term, but not both. When McCoist asked around about Green, he received far less reassurance or comfort than he wanted.

To say that relations have been frosty would be an understatement. In his year in management so far, McCoist has had to cope with Craig Whyte and, bluntly, he does not have the stomach to start all over again under Green. The prospects of a working relationship are all but non-existent. If it looks as though Rangers will be owned by Green's group for any length of time, McCoist will leave, either by resigning or by talking himself into a sacking. His name – and by extension his crucial endorsement – was conspicuous by its absence when a season-ticket renewal letter was distributed to supporters encouraging them to buy into Green's vision of Rangers.

A story was leaked that McCoist would resign and, within hours yesterday morning, Smith had issued a statement declaring his intention to bid for Rangers along with businessmen Douglas Park and Jim McColl. Those facts, of course, were inter-related: McCoist wanted distance between himself and Green's consortium and his alliance with Smith's group is so obvious it goes without saying.

Smith's 415-word statement made no mention of McCoist staying as manager in the event of a successful takeover. It didn't need to. One of the few certainties in the entire Rangers story is that Smith wouldn't want anyone other than McCoist in charge of the team.

But Smith doesn't own Rangers yet. For however long Green and McCoist co-exist, it will be the equivalent of a fault line running through Ibrox. McCoist was told by director Dave King that Green intended to sack him. McCoist confronted Green about that; it was denied, but the manager was left with massive doubts.

Green made his version of events public last night, insisting that he had spoken to King only once and would never confide in him about something so significant. "If I was getting rid of Ally I would say to him, face to face, 'Ally, I'm sacking you'," said Green. "That's never happened. In fact, the second meeting I ever had with Ally was in the office here at Ibrox where I said to him 'I'm quite happy to put a clause in my contract that says that the day you get sacked – because inevitably it would be me doing it – I leave, too'. That was so that Ally knew and understood that it wouldn't help me one iota for him to fail and that he had my support. Ally will confirm that to you.

"Look, I have great sympathy for Ally. I saw from the first time that I met him that he's a tremendous guy. But he's had people in his ear for six months. For nine months he had Craig Whyte in his ear. Ever since this club went into administration, every single person who was associated with a buyout wanted Ally on their team.

"To Ally McCoist, Charles Green is a nobody. To Ally McCoist, Walter Smith is everything. I understand that. I don't see it as being a negative. It's just a fact of life, but there is a point where we have to draw the line and get on. If Walter wants to ring me, wants to meet me, wants me to go to his house, I'll do it. If he wants to get behind the club I'll appoint him chairman of the football club tomorrow morning."

The stakes are enormous for Rangers, and McCoist is content to be at the centre of a political game, now employed by Green but actively wishing for his replacement even if that means taking the ultimate step of mobilising fans by resigning.

He unwittingly created a monster for himself back in February when he came out with that neat line about not walking away. Doubtless he imagined it making an obvious headline in the next day's papers, but it was embraced by his beleaguered club and grew to become something far, far bigger than that. Supporters seized on the words. There were banners at games which carried the phrase – scarves, flags, badges and other merchandise were produced too. Thousands felt that it struck exactly the note they wanted to hear in an otherwise confusing, stressful, directionless period. At one match there was a giant banner of McCoist and, under it, the message: "Your loyalty and sacrifice will never be forgotten."

Inevitably there will be some mocking for McCoist to endure if the moment comes when he does take a stand against Green and walks away, but he will easily brush that off as a necessary step in a much bigger story. The phrase has not painted him into a corner. Even if he leaves, he would be reinstated as soon as Smith's group was able to buy out Green. One thing is certain: McCoist and Smith together would rally supporters to invest in season-tickets and then a share issue. Green alone doesn't stand a chance.