Zappa 0 Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 (edited) Cast your mind back to two years ago this January when Rangers accepted a multi-million pound bid for Kris Boyd from Birmingham City. Through all the run-up rumours and speculation I never once believed that Boyd would be leaving us and even had a bet on it with a fellow forum member. Even after the substantial bid had been accepted I still truly believed that Kris would be a Rangers player come the first game in February. While that belief turned out to be correct, it didn't mean much at the time other than my hunch/gut feeling being right for once and that I thought the whole Boyd soap opera that January was a bit suspicious. Now bring your mind back to the present day and this January our club accept a bid from Birmingham for our top goal scorer. This time it's Kenny Miller and yet again we have a rather prolonged saga that ends up with the player not moving to Birmingham after a bid has been accepted. Kenny supposedly couldn't agree personal terms... By now peoples' heads are starting to hurt while some of us are close to calling a Samaritans helpline. Serie A outfit Fiorentina were supposedly interested in Kenny, but mysteriously lost interest despite the player being available for a pint of lager and a packet of crisps? Incredible! If I didn't actually trust our club and our press I wouldn't believe it! In step our opponents from this season's Champions League - Bursaspor, who Miller scored against and in a very strange transaction for any football club, Kenny Miller is given permission to speak to Bursaspor and agree personal terms before an official bid has actually been made and accepted. Am I the only one who thinks this is extremely odd? Well, no matter how odd it might seem, Miller is in Turkey and trained with them yesterday, so given that he's supposedly agreed personal terms and we've supposedly accepted an offer 'in principal', it now looks like a done deal. If it were now to fall through at the last minute for some bizarre reason like all writing implements in Turkey and Glasgow spontaneously combusting before pen is put to paper I think some of us might be bordering on getting a little sceptical. Then again, we'd believe anything us fans, wouldn't we? So the Miller saga looks to have finally ended and here we are, two thirds of the way through the transfer window minus our top scorer. There's a definite split in the fans' opinion over the whole thing, with many saying 'good riddance' and equally as many, perhaps even more saying '�£400k?, what a joke!'. Looking at it from a slightly different perspective, we may well have just been literally robbed by the Bosman ruling because Kenny Miller was free to talk to any club he wanted to, but is the water a touch muddy regarding this? I was under the impression that players in Miller's situation were allowed to talk to clubs about a potential Bosman move and signing of a pre-contract, but not about personal terms relating to a direct transfer before an offer had been made for the player. Am I missing something here? Enough of the weirdness because we've got a potential problem: Minus Kenny Miller we don't have a proven goal scorer and we're midway through the season. We all hope that Jelavic, Naismith, Lafferty and others in our squad can step up and score the goals that help take us to our third SPL title in a row, but is hope enough or do we need to replace Miller with another striker? It's a very difficult question because when Walter Smith signed Miller nobody thought for a minute that he'd score as many goals as he has never mind become our top striker. What's to say that one of our other strikers can't step up and score a lot of goals? Well, none of us know and it's quite likely that Walter doesn't know either, so it comes down to a gamble. Ideally, Walter would have some cash to buy a player and would spend some time in the next week with his management team and our scouts (yes, scouts) deciding on some potential Miller-replacing targets, but is our manager actually going to be able to trade that pint of lager and packet of crisps which we got for Miller? If Walter is allowed to look for a replacement what should he be looking for? A cheap buy or a loan signing? Most of us would like to think that David Goodwillie is now out of the picture in the wake of his pending court case and Dundee United's general greed, so are there other cheap, but attractive options in Scotland? The only one I can think of is Leigh Griffiths who's apparently on his way from Dundee to Wolves for �£150k. Griffiths has a great scoring record in the 1st Division, but he's unproven at SPL level so could he be a cheap option and would it be a worthwhile purchase? Personally, I'd be pleased with a young striker like Griffiths joining Rangers, but even happier if our management pulled a rabbit out of the hat and signed a cracking striker on loan for six months to help us win another league title. The problem is that loan signings can be hit or miss just like footballers in general, but if there's one thing that's for sure, it's that we don't need another thirty-something slouch who's only interested in collecting a pay-cheque. It's over to you Walter - Do nothing, sign a bargain with potential or find the loan Ranger! . . Edited January 21, 2011 by Zappa 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gribz 743 Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 was under the impression that players in Miller's situation were allowed to talk to clubs about a potential Bosman move and signing of a pre-contract, but not about personal terms relating to a direct transfer before an offer had been made for the player. Am I missing something here? If the clubs agree a fee for transfer then the player can discuss terms. If he was to sign for them in the summer and remain with us until then, then the other rules kick in. However I doubt ANY player wouldnt discuss what is potentiall on offer for them, it just woudlnt be revealed. Im on the side of "Thanks Kenny and good luck". He was offered a PAY CUT by us or a whopping wage 3 times what we offered tax free so I have no problems him going for this. The rumours have been doing the rounds for months that the club were asking him to take a pay cut yet last year we offered Boyd to be our top earner....and for me Miller makes / does more for the team than boyd did. As for new signing....your right WS is going to have to find the loan ranger but Id still say we'd be better covering defence and midfield before our forwards. Its more of a case of asking someone else to step up to the mark. This was asked when Boyd left and Miller grabbed the chance. I bet nobody in August would have said Miller could get 22 goals by Christmas!! Now its up to Jelavic, Lafferty, naismith, Fleck and others to get double figures before May or a combined variation from everywhere as it was in 2002 where we scored 102 goals from all over the place. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ian1964 10,386 Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 I would rather see WS strengthen the midfield or defence and hope the strikers we already have will step up to the plate for the second half as I think we have enough forward players here already. If Webster is going to start playing and playing as well as he can play then that will be a bonus and a factor in any potential signings,but can he be relied on??. So if we are allowed to make any signing I would look to strengthen the midfield,even though it's pleasing to see the likes of Ness,Hutton pushing through. Having said all that the main worry for me is will WS be allowed to sign anybody???. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stimpy 0 Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 I'd rather see the money spent elsewhere in the squad. I know I can't say for certain, but I'm sure Jelavic will score the goals, as will the team by chipping in equally throughout the team. If Webster was to be given a chance or sort his attitude out, depends on what you believe, then I'd be more assured. Said it many times and I'll say it again, Bougherra is currently a liability. He clearly doesn't want to be here and his performances show that. I'm happy with the midfield now that injuries are clearing up and young Ness is showing great potential. My only other concern going forward is the team's lack of consistency. We seem to go from excellent to mediocre from on game to the next. The next six weeks will/could define our season. Every player needs to give it their all if they want to see CL football next season. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rangers Football Club 0 Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 (edited) Fri 21 Jan 2011 Walt Seeks Loan Stars By Andrew Dickson WALTER SMITH is looking to make two loan signings during the January transfer window as he seeks to bolster his squad for the rest of the season. With Kenny Miller's move to Bursaspor now completed, the Rangers manager has been investigating ways he can improve his pool over the next couple of weeks. Money which would have gone towards Miller's wages and the cash brought in from his sale will be used to recruit Smith's targets if he is able to agree deals for them. As well as somebody to play up front, the 62-year-old is also searching for another defender to increase his options in that area. Smith said: "We've been looking around for a little while to bring in a couple of players, maybe on loan until the end of the season. "So far we've not been successful in doing that but we'll continue to look to see if we can supplement our squad a little bit. "When you look at the game the other night with Inverness, we were short of defenders so we really need to bring one in. "We'd also like to bring in a utility type of forward who can maybe play as a striker as well, although we've got other players who can step up to the plate now that Kenny's away. "Nikica Jelavic is getting back to fitness, Kyle Lafferty has been playing well and young John Fleck can come in and is playing as well as he has been for a while. "We have the capability of filling the void Kenny has left but we've obviously got the money to bring in players on loan too. "That would mean bringing a wage in more than anything else. Transfer fees are outwith our capabilities at the present moment. "We've got a good squad but we could maybe just be doing with a player or two to take the pressure off us in terms of injuries and suspensions." www.rangers.co.uk/articles/20110121/walt-seeks-loan-stars_2254024_2272996 Edited January 21, 2011 by Zappa 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zappa 0 Posted January 21, 2011 Author Share Posted January 21, 2011 As for new signing....your right WS is going to have to find the loan ranger but Id still say we'd be better covering defence and midfield before our forwards. I would rather see WS strengthen the midfield or defence. I'd rather see the money spent elsewhere in the squad. Looks like Walter is looking at the possibility of finding a defender on loan and possibly a striker/forward too. I'll believe it when I see it right enough... 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim White 0 Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 Rangers boss Walter Smith is hoping to bring in two new players on loan until the end of the season. More... 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.