Rangers look to tie up deals for strikers
Rangers are on the verge of buying their first players in over two years as they look to tie up deals for strikers James Beattie and Tommy Smith.
Manager Walter Smith said today that the club is in negotiations with Stoke City and Portsmouth respectively over the transfer of the players, while Beattie has arrived in Glasgow for talks with Rangers chiefs. While he is hopeful of capturing both forwards on permanent deals, Smith also refused to rule out a deal for Rapid Vienna’s Nikica Jelavic being pushed though as he looks to recover from losing all-time record SPL scorer Kris Boyd and Nacho Novo.
Smith told reporters that: "We definitely need to bring in reasonably experienced players. The three boys that we're talking to are good players and would enhance the squad, and that's the most important thing. Tommy Smith can play in wider areas of the pitch. We're still looking and will continue to look until the transfer deadline to bring in another one or two."
With the player in talks with Rangers, a transfer for Beattie looks closest to being secured for around £1.5 million. However, the other two transfers appear a little more complicated with Portsmouth looking to hang on to their player and Vienna looking for an improvement on the Glasgow giants’ £3.5m bid for Jelavic.
On the subject of the Jelavic talks, Smith said that: "There has been a fair amount of complications that we didn't foresee. A lot of these things don't go smoothly and that one certainly hasn't, but we haven't given up hope on that one yet."
The move for Tommy Smith looks to be even more problematic. Portsmouth manager Steve Cotterill told BBC Radio that "Rangers' offer is irrelevant because he's not somebody we want to sell. We're trying to build a team around our better players - and that includes Tommy Smith."
Rangers also have Honduras striker Georgie Welcome, of Deportivo Motagua, and Arsenal winger Nacer Barazite on trial as they look to add to the squad which saw six departures this summer. The club are assessing Barazite with the view of snapping him up on a season-long loan. Welcome has not been able to feature for Rangers in a friendly game yet, and Smith said that: "We'll have a closed-door game next week and that will give him an opportunity to show what he can do. It's always difficult for anyone to show in a training session how he is going to go."
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