PLAYERS and administrators have launched an 11th-hour bid to prevent swingeing redundancies at Rangers as two members of the squad became the first to leave the club.
Scotland under-21 international Gregg Wylde, 20, and Swede Mervan Celik, 21, had requests for voluntary redundancy without a payoff agreed yesterday afternoon.
Wylde, one of Scotland's hottest young prospects, said he volunteered to leave with no payout "to help the other people in the club who have families, like the kitchen staff".
As administrators Duff & Phelps moved towards redundancies, with at least 11 said to be on the cards, players went back to the table over an earlier suggestion of wage cuts to save jobs.
That would mean the highest earners taking a 75% hit, middle-earners losing 50%, and low- earners taking a 25% cut.
A player proposal to save jobs by deferring payment of wages was seen as unacceptable as it was felt that would not enable the administrators to make the required £1 million-a-month savings in club costs.
After three players said they would also like to join Wylde and Celik in leaving the club, it emerged last night that players and agents were thrashing out a last-ditch deal, involving changes to contracts, if the wage cuts to the end of the season were agreed.
It is understood a number of players are seeking guarantees through amendments to contracts that reasonable transfer bids, including free moves, would be considered from other clubs when the summer transfer window opens.
A Rangers source said: "We are cautiously optimistic of a deal."
The move, if agreed, would prevent a huge cull of the playing squad till the end of the season, by which time the club, it is hoped, would be out of administration.
The new twist in the corridors of the crisis-hit club came as talks continued throughout the day at Murray Park to cut the club's running costs – in the region of £10 million – between now and the end of the season. The administrators are seeking to fill a shortfall of £4.5m by the end of the season.
Wylde, who has made 47 appearances for Rangers, said he wanted to help the club "by keeping people in a job".
He said: "I offered to walk away yesterday and the club told me today that they would accept that offer.
"At the moment I have nowhere to go and I don't have another club.
"I don't know what is going to happen next but I thought it was important to play my part in saving Rangers."
Celik, a Sweden under-21 international attacking midfielder, only moved to Ibrox from GAIS in Gothenburg on a three-and-a-half-year deal in January. A Professional Footballers Association Scotland source believed both players would swiftly find new clubs as Fifa, the governing body of world football, has in the past given dispensation to signings of players who are out of work through no fault of their own.
Goalkeeper Allan McGregor, who is among the highest-paid players, having signed a six-year deal last summer, denied, through his solicitor, allegations that he had refused to take a wage cut.
In the statement, Margaret Gribbon, of Bridge Litigation, said: "Allan, along with many of his fellow players, is committed to making personal salary sacrifices to ensure the club survives.
"Allan has, and will continue to, extend his full co-operation with the administrators at this very difficult and challenging time for the club."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article