Duff and Phelps had set today as a deadline following more than a week of talks aimed at achieving monthly savings of £1million but talks broke up early this evening without a decision.

Administrators will consider an offer from the players overnight as they seek to strike a balance between wage cuts and potential job losses.

Players left Murray Park in quick succession shortly after 5.30pm, after arriving in the morning for talks aimed at preventing redundancies, and Duff and Phelps soon released a statement confirming another delay.

Joint administrator Paul Clark said: "Everyone involved in the administration process has been attempting to reach a consensual solution in regard to job losses within the playing squad.

"The prime reason for this has been to achieve essential cost savings while preserving the fabric of the first team.

"This has not been an easy balance to strike and we would like to thank the manager Ally McCoist, his players and the PFA Scotland for attempting to find a solution that would be workable for all. Every realistic option is being explored.

"Regrettably, it has not been possible thus far to reach a consensus where players could accept the necessary level of wage cuts to prevent job losses within the squad.

"We do not for a moment criticise the players for this as the wage reductions that would be required are very substantial and would have a significant impact on each individual.

"For clarity, we cannot enforce wage cuts. The players have to agree to this course of action.

"The players have asked us to consider a final proposal overnight for discussion in the morning and we have agreed to this request."

Joint administrator David Whitehouse said on Saturday that job losses were likely but a fresh deal was put on the table to avoid redundancies with a series of structured wage cuts.

The top earners in the playing staff were reported to have been asked to accept cuts of 75%, with others asked to lose 25-50% of their wages.

However, no deal was struck and administrators will now discuss the players' counter proposals before resuming negotiations tomorrow.

Administrators had previously rejected the offer of wage deferrals until the end of the season, insisting they had to lower costs to make the club attractive to potential buyers, who have been set a deadline of March 16 to make first indicative bids.

However, one of the interested parties, former director Paul Murray, then urged administrators to leave the squad intact as he claimed replacing 10 players could cost a new owner £20-30million.

Away from Murray Park, Rangers faced fresh problems after the Scottish Premier League launched an investigation into alleged non-disclosure of payments to players since the tournament began in 1998.

The probe follows confirmation from the SFA on Friday that they were looking into allegations from former Ibrox director Hugh Adam that Rangers players received payments that were not included in their contracts.

Some positive news emerged though as administrators struck a deal with Dunfermline that will see the Fife club paid the £84,000 in owed ticket money.

Meanwhile, it was reported tonight that Rangers company secretary Gary Withey has left law firm Collyer Bristow, who were last week presented with an initial High Court order to hand the club £3.6million from one of their accounts.

Collyer Bristow were unavailable for comment tonight but Withey, who was a partner at the London-based firm, has been removed from the staff list on their website.

Authoritative legal journal The Lawyer reported on their website that Collyer Bristow confirmed Withey had left for "family and personal reasons" and that the company did not know his whereabouts.

A further court hearing will be heard on Thursday as Rangers' administrators seek a permanent order over the £3.6million and further information from Collyer Bristow over payments made from the account.

Duff and Phelps previously revealed that a £24.4million cash injection from Ticketus for rights to future Rangers season tickets was placed in a Collyer Bristow account.

From this money, £18million was then used to pay off the debt to Lloyds Bank that owner Craig Whyte had pledged to settle when he bought his majority shareholding for £1.