Rangers' chairman David Murray insisted yesterday at the club's annual shareholders' meeting in Glasgow that coach Dick Advocaat would remain with the club beyond the end of his two- year contract.

Advocaat, who has guided Rangers to top position in the Premier League, to the final of the League Cup, and to the verge of a place in the last 16 of the UEFA Cup, was not on the platform at Glasgow's Royal Concert Hall yesterday when 1300 shareholders were present for the annual meeting.

However, when chairman Murray was asked from the floor if the successful Dutchman would be offered an extension to the contract he has signed, he replied that he was convinced that the coach would stay in the job for a longer spell.

Said Murray: ''I would like to think that my relationship with Dick Advocaat is similar to those I enjoyed with Graeme Souness and Walter Smith.

''There is a friendship and I can tell you that Dick Advocaat had the opportunity to earn #12,000 a week more in Spain than he is earning with Rangers. He was made that offer before he signed any contract with us.

''But, by that time, he had shaken hands on a deal with me and he honoured that and I knew then that we had a special man.

''He has signed a contract with the club and he has brought players here with him and I believe that he will stay on here to see the job through with the men he has brought in.

''I think he now realises that Rangers is a bigger club than he believed when he came here. I know that he was proud of the number of supporters who were in Germany last week when we won against Bayer Leverkusen.

''I am sure that Dick will stay with Rangers beyond the length of his contract. I have a very strong relationship with him and he already has strong feeling for Rangers Football Club.''

Then he added: ''When the contract was signed, the other club director who signed the agreement along with me was Walter Smith. He was there at my home in Jersey when everything was finalised.''

Earlier, Murray had told the meeting that he would never sell his shares and that he fully expected his two sons to continue to run the club when he stepped aside.

Any fears of financial

problems were dealt with by the chairman when a question from the floor suggested that the Ibrox club's loss could be running at as much as #25m at the end of the next financial year.

Murray stressed first of all: ''I have always maintained that we would go into debt to maintain our progress on the field. That is still the case.

''We want to have success and we have made the investment in players this past summer. But our losses won't be as much as suggested here.

''I have already sold a player for #3.5m (Rino Gattuso who returned to Italy at the weekend) and we will sell other players. But we are also ready to invest in new players if that is what the coach wants.''

Howard Stanton, one of the ENIC representatives on the Ibrox board then insisted: ''We are fully supportive of the money which was spent by the club in the summer. The decisions made by the chairman are backed by us.

''You must also realise that there will be a change in accounting regulations which will allow a player's contract to be spread over a period of three or four years, depending on the length of his agreement.

''In any case the conditions are not as onerous as suggested and we fully support the chairman on his financial strategy.''

One of the other players who could soon be sold is, of course, the disaffected striker Marco Negri. Murray told the meeting that he had stopped the Italian's wages 10 weeks ago and since then had spoken to the player's new agent.

Murray has now placed a #3.5m price tag on the player and maintained: ''That is the price I have agreed with his agent and since doing that I have had several clubs showing interest - at that fee - and it is possible that we shall sell the player within a week or so.

''He is back training today and he says he is ready to play, but he knows my position on this - no play, no pay and he knows I mean that.''

The club's new chief executive, Bob Brannan, announced that major reconstruction of Ibrox was not envisaged at the moment in a bid to increase capacity.

Instead, there will be additional seats at the front of the Govan Stand until further plans were examined.

He explained: ''We do not want to destroy the symmetry of the stadium and in this case we can add a further 1200 seats and bring the capacity up to 51,600.

''Season ticket holders who buy these seats will be given special club membership facilities at a club room behind the stand.

''We are also involved in designs for a new club museum, which we would like to open on December 30, 1999, which would be the one hundredth anniversary of the club moving to Ibrox.''

Brannan also indicated that talks were still going on between Rangers and a major sponsor who will take over from Scottish and Newcastle Breweries next season.

He stressed: ''We have had a strong relationship with Scottish and Newcastle, which will continue, but we want an international company as a shirt sponsor to strengthen our image abroad and we hope to have something concluded over the next few months. Talks are progressing.''

On the injury mystery

surrounding the Romanian internationalist, Daniel Prodan, signed in the summer from Atletico Madrid, vice-chairman Donald Findlay explained: ''Tottenham Hotspur were trying to sign the player at the same time as we were. The transfer was hurried through and it was based on the medical evidence provided after his operation in Romania in the summer.

''We have now found out that this evidence was not accurate and that the player had a degenerative condition of his knee, but the good news is that after further treatment he will soon be back in full training. There is hope that he will play before the end of the year.''

qIan Paul View - Page 33