Rangers bid for Croatian hitman Jelavic

[ian1964 10,419]

WALTER SMITH insists he won't rush into buying new players for Rangers.

The Ibrox boss has yet to make a summer signing with less than two weeks to go before the season starts.

 

Stars Kris Boyd, Kevin Thomson, Nacho Novo and Danny Wilson have all gone while rivals Celtic have totally rebuilt their squad.

 

Smith has promised Gers fans he's working hard behind the scenes to get three players in.

 

Rapid Vienna star Nikica Jelavic is now top of his list but Smith insists he won't rush in.

 

He said: "I can confirm that we have an interest in Jelavic and talks are ongoing, but negotiations are going a bit slower than we would have hoped.

 

"With regards others I'm not just going to dive in and take people for the sake of taking them.

 

"The club, on a previous occasion when they were cutting back, did that. I'm not going to do it again.

 

"We know we have to get players in but I'm hopeful that we can rectify that. We're not going to have the money for a huge spend but we'll get two or three players, hopefully, signed before the season.

 

"We've still got a month of the transfer window left. That's a factor in how we are operating.

 

"We were after Chris Eagles because I thought he'd bring something to the team. That is crucial to anything we do."

 

 

 

Read more: http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/sport/spl/3076364/Walter-Smith-wont-panic-buy.html#ixzz0vDL9jdfu

[Cotter 0]

Does Walter feel the need to publicly advertise everybody we are interested in to appease the fans? I'm getting worried that he's doing it so he can play the "we tried but it didn't work out" card when we're left with no new additions and a dodgy loan signing. Whenever we've done decent deals in the past we rarely knew about them until the last minute. It just smells a bit fishy all this public confirmation. It also advertises any decent finds to the inexperienced pig across the city. Not happy!

[Gribz 743]

Things are obviously going to be slowed down with everyone in australia, by the time they get back will be early next week and that leave about 11 or 12 days to get 3 players in. Im not confident deals can be done that quickly when other teams are going to be looking at our level of player with higher budgets.

 

If we have to get a few in on loan then so be it. 3 loans are going to be better than going into a must win SPL season and CL with 15 players.

[craig 5,199]

Being in Oz shouldnt make much difference though Gribz. Bain is negotiating the deals and he remained in Scotland.

 

I am not that concerned by WS confirming we are looking at Jelavic as everyone knew anyway. It is what it is. At least we know the club are trying to sign players.

[Jim White 0]

Rangers manager Walter Smith has confirmed his interest in Rapid Vienna striker Nikica Jelavic.

 

More...

[Guest Guivarc'h]

Does Walter feel the need to publicly advertise everybody we are interested in to appease the fans?

 

Yes.

 

I mentioned this after we publically declared our interest in the two South African boys. We are being so public about it because we know we have no chance of signing the players but want to make the fans think things are rosier than they actually are. Back in the days when we actually did sign players, our stance was always that we'd only make comments once the players were signed.

[rbr 1,247]

Being in Oz shouldnt make much difference though Gribz. Bain is negotiating the deals and he remained in Scotland.

I am not that concerned by WS confirming we are looking at Jelavic as everyone knew anyway. It is what it is. At least we know the club are trying to sign players.

 

Not sure about that bit Craig , he definetly left with the team , unless he was only going to London .

[Frankie 8,153]

Bain didn't go to Oz...

[Gribz 743]

Being in Oz shouldnt make much difference though Gribz. Bain is negotiating the deals and he remained in Scotland.

 

I am not that concerned by WS confirming we are looking at Jelavic as everyone knew anyway. It is what it is. At least we know the club are trying to sign players.

 

Aye i thought Bain would still be back but I was thinking any player would want to talk to WS or AM before signing. We have a friendly on wednesday before playing Newcastle next Saturday so the flight back must be straight after todays game but Ive done that flight 100 times (Sydney to Singapore to London/Paris/Ams) and its a 2 dayer so WS really needs to get down to Business ASAP.

[ian1964 10,419]

RANGERS will only sign Rapid Vienna striker Nikica Jelavic if he remains eligible to play in the Champions League.

 

The Croatian can still turn out in Rapid's Europa League qualifier against Beroe of Bulgaria this week.

 

However if Rapid progress following their 1-1 draw in Bulgaria last week, Jelavic will be deemed cup-tied for the remainder of the season if he then plays in the following play-off round.

 

That’s the key cut-off point.

 

Major decision

 

So Rapid has a major decision to make if they hope to do business with Rangers for their �£3m-rated marksman.

 

To date Jelavic is the only player Rangers are remotely close to signing.

 

The Scottish Champions have dropped all interest in South African World Cup players Katlego Mphela and Bongani Khumalo.

 

Gers also have no intention of pursuing St Etienne defender Yohan Benalouane.

 

This may leave the way open for Celtic who have also been credited with interest.

 

The Ibrox stance remains they are in no rush to be railroaded into signings they may regret given they don't enter the Champions League until September 14.