RANGERS chairman David Murray has pledged to continue to fight for compensation for the loss of Brian Laudrup to Chelsea.
The Danish internationalist understood he would be able to move on a free transfer and has already expressed dismay at the Ibrox club's decision.
However, Murray revealed yesterday that talks have already started with the Stamford Bridge club to resolve the dispute.
He said: ''Chelsea are talking to us about compensation and that's encouraging. Brian must respect Rangers' right to look after our interests. We will continue our discussions with Chelsea over a fee because I believe we have a strong legal case for going down that road.''
Laudrup was poised to leave Rangers at the end of the 1996-7 season, but was persuaded to stay on to see out a final year in which Rangers finished without silverware.
By his own admission that choice perhaps left him unsettled and the winger was unable to find his best form during a campaign in which he was also hit by persistent injuries.
Murray is aware of the player's frustration and is keen to stress the club's compensation bid is in no way a sign his own working relationship with the Dane has broken down.
He added: ''I'm not doing the dirty on him. I'm not attempting to blank out all the great memories which he has left us.
''I know he is unhappy and has already gone public to get a few points off his chest and that's fair enough, but as chairman I have a responsibility to act in and protect Rangers' best interests.''
However, Murray did concede he feels Laudrup did go back on an earlier verbal promise that he would refrain from joining another British club.
''When Brian renewed his contract for a further 12 months at the start of the season I told him I had no problem with him going to the Continent or America,'' said Murray.
''What I didn't want was him to go the Premiership because of the fans' reaction, but he changed his mind.''
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article