AXED director of football Gordon Smith has denied he did not have a good working relationship with Rangers manager Ally McCoist.

And he said it was not true that trialists or players who turned out to be poor signings – including Juan Ortiz, Matt McKay and Alejandro Bedoya – had been imposed on the manager by him.

Smith cleared his desk at Murray Park and left his role as director of football yesterday. The former SFA chief executive and chief operating officer Ali Russell accepted redundancy in cuts by administrator Duff and Phelps last Thursday and both agreed to stay on until the end of February.

"Some supporters have said I was responsible for bringing in players Ally didn't want. Rubbish. Total nonsense," he said.

"There were eight trialists brought in and I was responsible for four of them, and one of those was Sone Aluko. But I would go to Ally McCoist and say, 'here's a guy we can have on trial, do you want a look at him' and he would say yes or no. He decided who came in.

"Ally was given his place. I said to him [agent] John Viola has offered a player from Australia called Matt McKay and Ally said he'd look at that. He spoke to Craig Moore and Charlie Miller and he looked at DVDs, and we signed the player.

"Ally McCoist had his place and that was basically to choose who came in. It was nothing to do with anybody else. We all agreed that. No player was signed without Ally agreeing to it."

He went on: "I heard it said that he didn't want me in there, but I told him I was only there to help him and the club go forward. I didn't see it that we didn't have a good working relationship.

"We didn't always agree, Ally's said that too, but we always spoke."

Smith also revealed that he hasn't heard from Craig Whyte since becoming the first casualty of his crisis-hit ownership of Rangers a week ago.

Whyte, who has been in London and Monaco since leaving Glasgow more than a fortnight ago, has made no attempt to explain or apologise to the director of football he brought to the club in June.

"I last spoke to him just before he left the club [16 days ago], the day we went into administration," Smith said. "I haven't heard from him since then. That is weird.

"I would like to talk to him because there are things I'd like to know. He's under investigation from various bodies and let's hope we get the right answers."

When Smith's departure was announced he accused Whyte of failing to let him control recruitment, scouting, transfer negotiations and youth development, which he felt he should as director of football.

Although he repeated those criticisms last night he reserved judgment on Whyte overall. The shamed owner is under investigation from Strathclyde Police, the administrators, Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs and an independent inquiry from the Scottish Football Association.

"There was such a mystery to it [Whyte's ownership] that I can understand why people are so annoyed," said Smith. "A lot of questions need answering. We're all waiting to find out exactly what's been going on.

"I've heard it said if I was part of the company I should have known what was going on. But nobody knew. Nobody. If the administrators are having difficulty finding answers, what chance did people working at the club have?

"I've never had a problem with Craig Whyte. Even though I wasn't able to do my job I was able to talk to him all the time.

"He made promises that he would sort things out. I am a great believer that everyone is innocent until proven guilty. I'd wait until we know exactly what he's done."