McCoist: Rangers will live to fight again

Ally McCoist is confident Rangers will continue beyond this season. The Glasgow giants travel to St Johnstone today for their final game of the season, but talks will continue as the administrators Duff and Phelps try to find a buyer.

Asked if it had crossed his mind that the trip to Perth could be Rangers' last game, McCoist said: "It hasn't because I don't believe that will be the case. My eyes are very much open to the situation but the club has to go on, it will go on, it must go on. I am still of the opinion that our football club will continue, with all the history we have had."

The Sale Sharks owner, Brian Kennedy, and the Blue Knights have taken their offers off the table, claiming it is too late to push through a Company Voluntary Arrangement. The American tycoon Bill Miller withdrew on Tuesday, days after being named preferred bidder.

Administrators said that discussions with two bidding parties were at "a very advanced stage", with one of the groups reported to have links with the former Sheffield United chief executive Charles Green. McCoist said he was familiar with an individual involved with one of the groups.

He said: "It's not for me to say who that is. I would be very positive about this gentleman. I don't know him, to be honest with you. I've never met him. But the administrators have told me a bit about him and anything that is a step in the right direction would have to be positive news. Just the fact that he is hopefully going to take the club forward would be enough reason to be positive."

Rangers' players will revert to their original contracts at the end of the month, having agreed wage cuts of up to 75 per cent until the end of the season in order to avoid redundancies.

McCoist said: "That's a question that will hopefully never be asked of the players [again]. Only they can answer it. The players have made fantastic sacrifices. They have had a bizarre season in many ways, having to take cuts.

"I think they have been great, I really do. There has been an awful lot asked of the players this season."