McCoist Calls For End To Feuding

Photo by Jeff Holmes Rangers manager Ally McCoist has encouraged Dave King and Mike Ashley to join together and save the club from a fresh crisis. But the Light Blues boss has warned Ashley's attempts to axe chief executive Graham Wallace could send the club into another tailspin. Former oldco director King jetted into Scotland earlier this week for talks with Wallace and members of the board at Ibrox. The South African-based millionaire, who has teamed up with ex-Blue Knight Paul Murray and wealthy fan George Letham, spent around two hours spelling out his plans for a £16million investment package for the cash-strapped League One champions - but demanded a 51 per cent stake in the club in return. However, Sandy Easdale, the club's football board chairman who owns 5.21 per cent of the club and holds proxies for another 20.94 per cent, is pushing ahead with his bid to form an alliance with Newcastle owner Ashley. The Sports Direct tycoon recently upped his stake in the club to 8.92 per cent before declaring war on Wallace and fellow director Philip Nash when he called an emergency general meeting seeking to remove the pair from the Light Blues board. McCoist, though, is desperate to see a peace deal brokered and urged the two sides to find a way to work together. Asked if he would welcome an investment package from King, he replied: "Oh 100 per cent. If the board and shareholders agreed to the offer put by Dave, I'd be very keen to see it. In fact I would back any investment from any party at all that was accepted by the shareholders. "In an ideal world the more investment the better. As a supporter and manager, I would actively encourage all parties if they can to get together. "Once source of investment would be fantastic but if we can get two, three, four - as much investment as humanly possible - that would be better for the club. "Does the club need to get this sorted out once and for all? Yes, without doubt. It is in everybody's best interests that we can get a clean slate and everyone can move on." But the manager claims ousting Wallace from the board is a dangerous move. "It absolutely concerns me because it would create instability within the board," he said. "It is not something I can have a major influence on but from my seat here as a manager I am delighted to be working with Graham. I firmly believe that he absolutely wants the club to move forward. He's got a vision, which a lot of it we both share." McCoist confirmed he had spoken to King in the hours before the Castlemilk-born businessman arrived at the stadium on Tuesday. When King was last seen in Glasgow back in March, he vowed not to leave the city until the two sides had come up with a "definite game plan" for Rangers' future. But an agreement never materialised as Easdale refused to do business. McCoist, however, believes King is still optimistic of thrashing out a rescue package before the club runs out of money. "I spoke to Dave on the phone before his meeting," he said. "As you know I go back with Dave from the previous time he was on the board. "All he told me was that he was in meetings with the board. He hasn't told me anything confidential in terms of the business side of things. "He said he was hopeful of pushing things forward. He said he was very, very keen to get a deal done that will push the club forward. Other than that there was no indication of what the meetings where about and I haven't spoken to him since." Rangers will resume playing action against Raith on Saturday after last week's clash with Cowdenbeath was postponed as a result of international call-ups. Their last meeting with Rovers a month ago saw McCoist's side romp to a 4-0 success in Fife and the manager would be happy to see a repeat at Ibrox. He said: "That game at Stark's Park was certainly our best level of performance this year. For the entire 90 minutes we played extremely well, scored four and should have had a lot more. "It's fair to say if we could match that level of performance most weeks I would accept it."