Redundancies loom large for Rangers

Rangers face a pivotal day even by recent dramatic standards after administrators warned of "significant" redundancies in the playing squad if no progress is made on securing the club's future.

Talks have been ongoing on two fronts - with players over a wage-reduction agreement and with interested parties over a speedy sale of the business.

Administrators say that, if no deal is struck with the squad or no assurances made over an imminent bid, the playing squad will be cut on Friday.

Players have agreed to take wage cuts - the top earners would lose 75% of their salary - but some want more secure guarantees that workers will not lose their jobs and some want exit clauses in their contracts.

Joint administrator David Whitehouse promised redundancies if a deal was not struck on Friday, although he had previously set Monday as a deadline.

His colleague from Duff and Phelps, Paul Clark, later expressed some optimism over a deal with players after renewed discussions with agents and said some players would get exit agreements.

He added: "I don't think that should be considered that any or all of the players are considering that they want to leave the club in the summer.

"It's just a safety mechanism from their point of view, in exchange for the very substantial amounts they're giving up, to give them some flexibility depending on what the new ownership structure looks like when the club comes out of administration."

Administrators have claimed their reluctance to make cuts so far has been out of a need to preserve some value to the playing squad in order to attract buyers.

Clark told BBC Scotland: "We've got several parties who appear to be asking all the right questions and we are looking for them to move forward to make some bids to us, we hope at some point next week."