THE Rangers website last night proclaimed: ''Santa is coming.'' It provoked among the weary support suggestions that he would need a big sack to carry the cash to save a beleaguered club.

 

The Ibrox saga yesterday provided two developments that almost unwittingly sparked a series of riddles worthy of a job lot of Christmas crackers.

This was the festive Monday when a Rangers manager received a wage rise because he resigned. This was the manic Monday when a group of Rangers fans - pass the smelling salts - agreed with a move by the Scottish Football Association. This was the season when Father Christmas Ashley was accused of having undue influence on the club after placing £3m in loans in a presumably large sack and then having two of his helpers placed on the board, one of whom, Derek Llambias, is almost certainly the next chief executive of the club and the man who will almost certainly lead negotiations on behalf of the board tomorrow over the fraught matter of the future of Ally McCoist who has resigned as manager.

Let us, dear reader, take the riddles in sequence.

McCoist's salary rose to a pre-cut £750,000 as part of a contractual agreement with Graham Wallace, once chief executive of the club. The manager had agreed to a pay cut in times of austerity, some say to circa £300,000, others insist it was nearer to £500,000. The £750,000 figure kicks in on resignation or dismissal.

It will form the basis of severance talks tomorrow but how will the matter be settled? This is almost entirely in the remit of Ashley, the £4bn man. The laying of charges against the businessman and the club by the SFA was welcomed by the Union of Fans, an umbrella group of Rangers supporters. Rangers fans have long been at odds with the SFA but the reason why this move meets with approval is that they see Ashley not only as ' an undue influence'' on the club but a malign one. They fear that the Sports Direct magnate's merchandising deals with the club may have just one beneficiary and it is not Father Christmas.

The riddle of Ashley and his influence is harder to resolve. There is only one rational solution to the McCoist situation and that is that the manager should leave this week. This, though, involves the payment of money. McCoist will have to be compensated as will Ian Durrant, Kenny McDowall and any others who are regarded as surplus to the future.

How much will this all cost? Perhaps £1m? More? Then a new management team will have to be recruited. How much will this cost, even in reduced salaries? Perhaps £250,000 for a manager and the same for his combined staff? This is all coming uncomfortably close to £1.5m to add the £8m needed almost immediately to ensure the survival of the club.

The release of the £750,00 figure can be seen as attempt by the board to force McCoist to settle cheaply. But the overwhelming money problems remain even if the manager goes.

So whence will come a saviour? One theory is that Ashley will step in, trade his loans for equity, tell the SFA to talk to his lawyers and assume control of the club. All concerns of dual ownership with Newcastle United can be mired in legal argument or circumvented by transferring shares to placemen or nebulous entities. If one thinks this is impossible, then answer simply who is behind Blue Pitch Holdings or Margarita Funds that both hold sizeable chunks of the club. No, me either.

Rangers may then have to rely on the man who is unwanted by a vocal group of fans and who is the subject of charges by the SFA over an influence far below what it would take to save the club.

This is a volatile, particularly precarious moment in a saga that has bristled with danger. It poses questions over the very existence of Rangers. The immediate concern is to resolve the McCoist situation and the first step towards that end will take place tomorrow.

But the next crisis is just more than a heartbeat away. Rangers face an annual general meeting next Monday. It will be, in the words of one shareholder, ''a bloodbath''. This is no allusion to any violence but a recognition that the annual general meeting last year was slickly managed, so avoiding most of the dissent being aired.

''They even called it to a halt early citing the cold weather,'' said one shareholder last night who insisted that the general mood among the support was to ask hard questions and not to accept easy answers.

Llambias will almost certainly be there and if he is any doubt about the anger among the support then he will be disabused of this quickly.

This will then lead to an answer to the most relevant riddle of all. How much time and money is Ashley prepared to invest in a club where he seems besieged? The answer will be found in the most significant of bottom lines for any entrepreneur. If there is money to be made, he will persevere and, on his track records, succeed, brushing aside criticism from fans and meeting the SFA with all the legal power that billions can buy. Alternatively, he could simply do walking away, with his merchandise deal intact and his loans carrying a significant impact on who could take over the club.

The future of the manager is on the line this week. The very future of the club is at stake in the next month.