Ally McCoist has revealed his heartbreak at the way long-serving Rangers employees have left Ibrox.
The departing Ibrox manager clearly believes the heart and soul is being ripped out of the club as the money men serve redundancy notices on loyal members of staff.
McCoist is unwilling to confirm their exit was a reason for his resignation, but spoke of his sadness of seeing people like his secretary, Laura Tarbet, being ushered out the door.
He said: “If you’ve worked with someone for 20-years and they’ve left it’s extremely sad to see people go, very good people, great people.
“Laura Tarbet, for example, 42 years she’s been with the Rangers, she was on the flight to Barcelona, the first manager she worked for was Willie Waddell.
“Her name, in my opinion, should be on the board going up the stairs at Ibrox, she should be in the Hall of Fame.
“There’s no use shirking the issue, we don’t have John Greig any more, we don’t have Sandy Jardine and we don’t have Laura Tarbet.
“It’s sad we’re losing people that are synonymous and have an identity with the club. We definitely are now missing people that have meant so much to Rangers over the years.”
McCoist hopes that in time he regains the respect of all Rangers fans.
“I hope people will look at me and see somebody that’s attempted to do their best at all times and that I was attempting to do the right thing for the right reasons.”
McCoist has witnessed an unprecedented three-and-a-half years of strife at Rangers. The ongoing financial chaos at Ibrox has caused untold damage on and off the field.
The 52-year-old boss has been the one constant. His resignation and intention to serve out 12 months’ notice has created a new set of problems. Having a manager with no long-term future has rarely brought success.
It went badly wrong when Sir Alex Ferguson announced he was to retire from Manchester United and it was equally unsuccessful when Walter Smith decided he would leave Rangers in 1997.
Rangers failed to make it 10 League titles in a row in 1998 and lost the Scottish Cup Final.
McCoist is adamant that slump won’t be repeated. He said: “We won’t let it be a worry because we can’t let it happen.
“We as a staff are 100% focused still on the job and the players will be because they realise the importance of getting back up to the top flight.
“I never went into a game for Rangers after Walter made it public that he was leaving with the thought we were winding down.”
As things stand, McCoist is due to leave his office in December 2015. Around 12 of his players are out of contract before then and he concedes that is a problem.
He went on: “That has to be addressed.
“I have made my intentions clear and it’s 100% correct that the players are informed and have knowledge of what’s happening at the end of their contract.”
McCoist confirmed that assistant manager Kenny McDowall and first-team coach Ian Durrant have not handed in their notice.
He said: “I couldn’t have asked for a better backroom team.”
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