Smith has agreed to stay as Rangers manager for one more year

Rangers boss Walter Smith hopes to have new signings in place before the club's pre-season tour of Australia but admits finance may prohibit this ambition.

Smith's squad has been diminished by the exits of Kris Boyd, Nacho Novo, DaMarcus Beasley and Steven Smith.

And the Ibrox manager is keen to bolster his ranks for the upcoming Scottish Premier League title defence.

"Market forces are against us right now and that is happening a lot," Smith told the club website.

"Everyone says we have a small group of players and that we will need to bring new ones in and, of course, that is correct.

"But when we are looking around it's difficult to achieve the balance of getting the level of player you want given the level of finance available.

"So that is the task that faces us and we will obviously try to bring in the best we possibly can.

We might be asking a lot of David Weir to go on for another year but he is more than ready to take up the challenge Walter Smith

"I would hope to have new faces in before we travel to Australia but it is not something we are going to dive into.

"In the past through different sets of circumstances the club have maybe had to do that and it has not worked out in the right way."

Though Rangers have lost some of their first-team regulars, captain David Weir and fellow defender Kirk Broadfoot have signed new deals and Andy Webster has returned from a successful loan spell at Dundee United.

"I felt that given the amount of players that we have lost and the fact that we haven't replaced any yet that it was important that we kept hold of Davie because he represents a level of stability for us.

"He has been a terrific captain for us for over a year now and a terrific player since he came here in 2007.

"We might be asking a lot of him to go on for another year but he is more than ready to take up the challenge.

"We are both in a similar situation and hopefully we can both be as successful as we have been.

"Kirk missed huge periods of the past two seasons because of an awkward injury.

"I always knew it would take him time to find his form again but he is an important player for us because he can play a numbers of positions for us. So I'm delighted he has chosen to stay with us."

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version