Walter Smith striving to keep squad intact

WHEN you have a first-team squad of just 18 members, the inability to bring in new recruits is a serious enough problem. If you then start losing some of your existing players, you have a crisis on your hands.

With several players out of contract at the end of this month, Rangers could soon be in that position, Walter Smith said yesterday. The Ibrox manager explained that, while the club do have some money to spend, they remain vulnerable to offers from English clubs.

Smith, who confirmed that Middlesbrough have expressed an interest in playmaker Kevin Thomson, hopes to keep all the players he has besides adding one or two. He admitted, however, that Rangers were not in a position of strength. "We'd like to stave off any enquiries that we get for any of our players, but unfortunately we have to listen to them all," he said. "We are not needing to sell any player for any given reason. Hopefully we'll keep the ones we've got, but if somebody did enquire we'd have to give it consideration.

"Maybe in the past the financial aspects of the club were caused by large investment in the team. It's investment in the team that's caused the problem. Just now we know we have to help the club, and there's a difference there between the club and the team. We have to look at the club's welfare, maybe to the detriment of the team."

Rangers have so far lost Kris Boyd, Nacho Novo, DaMarcus Beasley and Stevie Smith this summer, and that figure of 18 remaining players includes some youngsters. The manager's ideal is therefore to add experience to his squad. "Just now we've got 18, counting Andrius Velicka who is just coming back after being out a full season with injury. He's back in training now and is doing well," said Smith, who was speaking at the launch of the 'True Colours' initiative, which encourages supporters to buy season tickets and also aims to provide free tickets for members of the armed forces.

"Eighteen (includes] two goalies, and a couple of the younger boys like Danny Wilson, John Fleck and Andrew Little. We'll obviously have to try and bring in a couple of more experienced players at least over hopefully the next couple of weeks. If we can do that, we will be in good condition to try and keep hold of the championship."

The good news for Smith is that apart from Thomson none of his players is the subject of active interest from other clubs. Liverpool's initial interest in Danny Wilson has faded, and all has also been quiet on the Madjid Bougherra front.

"There's nothing at all, not even an enquiry for him," Smith said of the Algerian defender. "We got an enquiry from Hamburg a month ago, but they never followed it up. Hopefully that will be the only one we get in his case. He is coming back to us at the weekend following his World Cup campaign.

"We have had no more enquiries for any of our players. None of the lads have expressed a desire to leave, but if we get an enquiry for them we'll have to look at it in the interest of both parties, the player as well as the club. We've got money to buy a player, but it's not in the regions it's been before. If we avoid injuries and suspensions we've still got a good group of players, and that's the most important thing. So hopefully we don't get put in the position where we lose many of them."

One of the younger players who could step up to the first team is 21-year-old defender Jordan McMillan, who yesterday signed a new two-year contract. Meanwhile, third-choice goalkeeper Scott Gallacher has joined Forfar on loan for the first half of the season.