Smith's future up in the air

Prospect of three trophies and takeover no guarantee for Ibrox boss

Last updated: 16th March 2010   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Smith's future up in the air

Smith: Illustrious Ibrox past

Related links

Teams

Also see

Rangers boss Walter Smith admits his future will depend on club ownership rather than success, as the SPL leaders look set for a grandstand finish to the season.

The Old Firm club are up for sale amid debts of around £30million and London-based property tycoon Andrew Ellis is currently assessing a possible takeover.

Ibrox legend Smith is on course for a treble-winning season and his non-contract relationship with the club has prompted suggestions he could retire on a high.

Smith rejects that notion, claiming finishing his career on a high is needless but admits that although his retirement will come with good timing it could be out of his hands.

"People keep asking me if I will be leaving and the truth is that I don't know because no-one knows what is going to happen with the club," Smith told Clyde 1.

"A lot will depend on what is happening at the club and my own mindset.

"There is still a lot of football to be played and it's like everything else - if you finish on a successful spell everyone says 'well, you should leave on a high'. I am not of that mind.

High

"Whatever happens it will not be a case of going out on a high, it will be if the time is right.

"If Rangers get new owners it could maybe be that they don't want you, or I could say, new owners, new start and they need the freshness of a different management team.

"I genuinely don't know what I am going to do. I was walking in before the Old Firm game a few weeks ago at 11am and I was asking myself, as the nerves got to me, why I was doing this.

"Then you get a last-minute goal and you remember what the reason is for doing it.

"I think the feeling when you lose a game is worse than it has ever been and you don't quite get the highs you used to.

"I certainly feel the defeats much worse than I used to and that aspect of it is quite strange."

First spell

Smith was manager for seven of Rangers' nine consecutive titles in his first spell with the club and since his return he has collected four trophies in his first two seasons back in charge as well as leading the team to a Uefa Cup final.

With a wealth of experience to be proud of, Smith is unsure how long he will remain in the game, adding: "I must admit at times when I came back to Rangers I didn't think I would be here for any great length of time.

"I think the thing is when I got the sack from Everton and I had a year of not really doing anything before the Scotland job, I quite enjoyed it for three or four months because you are able to do things you can't when you are involved day-to-day with football.

"After a period of time though, you wonder whether you want to do that.

"It's even worse this time because there is a finality about retiring and I have to ask myself whether that is something that I really want.

"There is a little bit of trepidation about saying I'm going to finish because I am enjoying it. I have no incapacity stopping me doing anything."