IF WALTER Smith is feeling the heat after a desultory start to the season and the loss of his best player, he showed no signs of it on the eve of his side's home game against a resurgent Hearts.
IF WALTER Smith is feeling the heat after a desultory start to the season and the loss of his best player, he showed no signs of it on the eve of his side's home game against a resurgent Hearts. He charmed, he laughed, he wisecracked. It was hard t
o reconcile the avuncular figure in front of us with the supposedly besieged manager who had just had his latest transfer target, Cardiff City's Dutch defender Glenn Loovens, swiped from under his nose by the folk at Parkhead.
The loss to Kaunas was the elephant in the room, and he certainly wasn't going to worry our little heads by mentioning it. Nor did he fancy dwelling on the prospect of Saturday's return to Aberdeen, the scene of Rangers' final-day implosion during last season's dramatic finale. The trip to Parkhead the following week didn't rate a mention either.
He was happy to debunk a few myths about the Carlos Cuellar business, however. The first was that there was any disagreement over the desirability of selling the Spaniard to Martin O'Neill's Aston Villa. Rumours of an overheated exchange between assistant manager Ally McCoist and Rangers chief executive Martin Bain over a supposed lack of action to keep the Spaniard were, he said, rubbish.
"From the chairman down we're all disappointed to lose him," said Smith. "We didn't need to sell him, we didn't want to sell him. But the truth is that we wouldn't have got the player if it wasn't for that (?10m get-out] clause. Although no other player here has that clause, it's a basic clause in Spain for the majority of players.
"I wasn't surprised this happened. He had an outstanding season for us, and getting to the UEFA Cup final was always going to bring him to the attention of a lot of people. There's no doubt that the approach – or approaches – didn't come in the couple of days before he left. It's possibly been going on since the end of last season. But there was no willingness on our part to let him go."
Would Smith allow get-out clauses in the future? "Of course I'd go down the same road again to get a player we want, I'd just make the fee a bit bigger this time. Mind you. I thought ?10m was pretty big!"
If the Rangers manager was in a surprisingly chirpy mood, it was largely as a result of a welter of positive transfer news. With the £7.8m from the sale of Cuellar to play with, he has been casting his net ever wider, saying that in addition to his three signings this week – 29-year-old Portuguese midfielder Pedro Mendes from Portsmouth for £3m; 22-year-old American defender Maurice Edu from Mo Johnston's Toronto for £2.5m; and 19-year-old Valencia starlet Aaron Niguez Esclapez – he would bring in "at least one, possibly two" more names before the end of the transfer window.
One of those could be Parma's abrasive Aussie midfielder Mark Bresciano, for whom a £4m bid has been lodged. And Smith is also confident of completing the signing Fulham's Steven Davis after his impressive loan spell last season.
After overloading his squad with strikers, Smith appears keen to draft in midfielders who can provide them with the service, especially in the absence of Barry Ferguson, who will be out for another nine weeks. Smith also spoke of the need to bring a physical edge to bear, which chimes with the reports of Edu's muscular physique and uncompromising style of play.
Smith hopes Mendes (below) will provide the stability and experience of Ferguson, on whom Smith says his side "have become over-reliant", and the guile and goals of the injured Chris Burke. "Mendes is a good all-round midfield player who's technically good and can take the ball forward because we need an improvement in our overall possession of the ball. Being able to score goals from midfield is one of Mendes's assets but it's more his all-round play that impresses me. The goals are a bonus."
If Mendes arrives as the finished article, attacking midfielder Esclapez is a work in progress. "The young Spanish boy is a different matter," says Smith. "He's been at Valencia, he's been the captain of the underage Spanish team for several seasons. He's only 19 and looks as if he's very bright. But he's only a young lad who is wet behind the ears. He's only been training for a couple of weeks because of his involvement with national teams so he's maybe a couple of weeks away (from playing]."
If the summer movements were strictly business for Smith, Spanish striker Nacho Novo had a different take. The departure of Cuellar saw the departure of a close friend, while the arrival of the diminutive Esclapez means Novo is no longer "the wee man". Novo will act as translator for his countryman, with whom he shares an agent, and teach him English.
If he ends up speaking his mind as plainly as Novo did on Friday, there will be few complaints. "There has been a lot of criticism of the gaffer but I don't think it's his fault," said Novo. "In Kaunas, for example, we started well and went 1-0 up and then lost the game. It's as simple as that, it was down to the players and we have to do better. We win as a team and lose as a team."
Unfortunately for Smith and Novo, the restless Rangers fans who packed Ibrox yesterday are only interested in one half of that equation.
The full article contains 984 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
