Walter Smith has played down growing optimism that Rangers are ready to be bought over by London-based property developer Andrew Ellis. The Rangers boss, currently working without a contract at Ibrox, believes there is a long way to go before fans can start celebrating their financial saviour.
Former Northampton Town chairman Ellis, part of the RFC Holdings group linked with a takeover, has been confirmed as being in talks with Rangers’ parent company Murray International Holdings.
Ellis and his group are in line to buy out former chairman David Murray but Smith, who was assistant manager at Rangers when Murray bought over the club in 1988, has urged caution from everyone watching the takeover from the outside until the deal is complete.
“There is a huge difference between someone declaring an interest in buying a club and actually doing it,” warned Smith. “I think that’s the one thing we have to be careful with.
“I'm not on the business side of things but, from what I read about takeover bids for all different businesses, it doesn't seem to happen at the drop of a hat.
"There is a lot of work to be done before anything is completed so we will just have to wait and see what happens."
Smith, his assistant Ally McCoist and first team coach Kenny McDowall have all been working without contracts since the turn of the year after their original three-year deals, signed in January 2007, came to an end.
Since news of Rangers’ financial woes came to light, the Light Blues have went two years without signing a player on a permanent deal and Smith would welcome an end to the period of uncertainty for everybody at the club.
"Everybody here has worked in this uncertain period for the club. It's not been easy for anybody," said Smith.
"Everybody gets affected by the uncertainty that's happened and it would be nice if that's getting settled. But I think we've got a long way to go before we see that.”
Rangers club captain, David Weir, was buoyed by the news that Ellis and his consortium have expressed a serious interest in assuming control at Ibrox and believes that potential buyers finally coming out of the woodwork can only be good news for player, staff and fan morale.
“The fact that people are interested in the club can only be good,” said Weir. “Hopefully, we can get the club on a sound footing and get it at the level where it should be – where we are not talking about things off the field all the time.”
