Smith says Rangers considered sacking him and his backroom staff
Rangers manager Walter Smith has revealed he was almost sacked along with his backroom staff in January because of the club's dire finances.
Sir David Murray resigned as chairman of the debt-ridden club in August as the bank demanded savings, including the sacking of assistant Ally McCoist.
"You never know whether there's any great truth in it," said Smith.
"But I don't think there's any doubt that, in the early part of the year, that was the case."
At Rangers' annual meeting on Monday, it was confirmed that Smith had agreed in the summer to work without a contract from January 2010 to help ease the financial burden on the Ibrox club.
Rangers are about £31m in debt and Murray is looking for a buyer for his majority shareholding.
On a personal basis the perfect time to leave would have been at the end of last season, but there's a lot to be handled in these kinds of situations.
Rangers manager Walter Smith
Smith, along with his assistant McCoist and coach Kenny McDowell, learned in January that their employment at the club was precarious as the bank scrutinised expenditure with a view to recouping losses.
"I think that was probably thought about in the earlier part of the year," said Smith.
"In a normal situation where people come in, it's the easiest thing in the world to cut costs.
"So they can cut away a manager and bring in someone on a lesser wage, but from our point of view there was never any kind of feeling that we'd want to leave."
Smith returned to Ibrox in 2007 following a spell as Scotland manager and took Rangers to the final of the Uefa Cup in Manchester in May 2008.
The 61-year-old also won back the Scottish Premier League title last season, gaining automatic entry to the group stages of this season's Champions League, and Smith feels it may have been better to leave the club on a high.
"On a personal basis, the perfect time to leave would have been at the end of last season, but there's a lot to be handled in these kinds of situations," he said.
"I did it a couple of times at Everton and it's not easy, so therefore I felt as though I'd be leaving Alastair and Kenny to do that sort of thing and, if they got the sack, for a new manager to come in it would have been the perfect time to do it.
"You've got to remember that for me it was maybe an easier decision than for them."
McCoist was working as a television football pundit, while McDowell was previously with Celtic, before joining Smith's team.
"They're younger than me and they've got families," he said. "Alastair left a really good job to come and work at Rangers, so it's not the perfect situation - but the club's not in the perfect situation at present.
"It's something that we hope will work out. If we get a new owner and we get the opportunity to stay on then that's fine - everything will have worked out all right. If we don't, that's football and we'll carry on.
"We're just doing what we think is the right thing for the club and that is important for every one of us.
"From my point of view, I just feel as though I've been lucky to have been manager of Rangers over a period of time.
"I just think it's something I can do and if it means I have to leave at the end of it then that's fine. It's not affecting us and I don't think it's affecting the team."
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