Scottish Championship: Terry Butcher says Rangers need right man with funds for long term
Saturday 7 February 2015 13:34, UK
Terry Butcher says he would welcome Lalit Modi’s interest in Rangers if the Indian businessman has the necessary funds and is committed to taking the club back to the top in Scotland in the long term.
Modi, the man who launched cricket’s lucrative Indian Premier League, has expressed an interest in purchasing a 26 per cent stake in the troubled Scottish Championship club.
Former Rangers captain Butcher told Sky Sports News HQ: “I think a lot of people have staked an interest in Rangers Football Club so it all depends if people have got the funds to take them through.
“I want somebody to go into Rangers Football Club and make sure that they have the funds and they have the desire and have the passion to take Rangers all the way back to the top, because there is no point coming in and applying the sticking plaster to the problem that is Rangers.
“It needs far more than that. It needs people to come in and make sure they can sit down with everybody, get the fans behind the club again and show a real plan for the future.
“So it all depends who’s got that sort of money and who’s got that sort of desire. But it is a long-term project, it’s not short term with Rangers by any means.”
Butcher has managed Motherwell, Inverness and Hibernian in Scotland and he has some sympathy for Rangers boss Kenny McDowall following his claims – later denied by Rangers chief executive Derek Llambias – that he has been told to play the five players taken on loan from Newcastle this week.
“When Kenny made the comment I thought he was just going to burst out laughing in the end,” said Butcher.
“I thought it was a joke, but it obviously isn’t a joke because when you are allegedly told you have got to play the loan players, it puts your position in a bit of doubt and you lose credibility then with the rest of the players.
“I don’t know what the atmosphere is like at Murray Park now with Rangers in terms of ‘the players have to play’. Derek Llambias came out and said that wasn’t the case, they are all part of the squad but no-one actually said that Kenny was lying, he was speaking untruths.
“So you read between the lines, he has obviously been told that, that’s why he has said it, that’s why he has been very honest, he’s been transparent and he has obviously stated his case, so bear in mind, of course, that he did give his notice in and he is working to that notice, but it’s not great.
“I have never worked under those conditions. I wouldn’t like to work under those conditions and I don’t think any manager should, but when you are told you have got to play players then it doesn’t help.”
