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Rangers are expected to lodge a bid in the region of �£500,000 today for Kris Commons, having made contact with Derby County last night to establish what fee would be required to sign the Scotland internationalist

 

Commons is believed to be keen to leave Pride Park this month, but Herald Sport understands that Celtic are also trying to persuade the attacking midfielder to sign a pre-contract agreement with the Parkhead side and wait until the summer.

 

Derby would prefer to sell the player now and reinvest the fee, and are prepared to accept a bid of around Ã?£500,000. Although no formal offer was made last night, it is believed that Rangers are weighing up how best to spend the money made available by Kenny Miller’s move to Bursaspor, and the likelihood is that it will be spent on Commons.

 

Walter Smith, the Rangers manager, has spoken of his desire to sign a wide attacking player – Commons fits this description – and a defender. While a move for the Derby player would use up his available funds, more money will become available if Charlie Adam seals a move away from Blackpool this month.

 

Rangers are due 10% of any fee above Ã?£500,000 for the midfielder, who handed in a written transfer request yesterday. Blackpool rejected Adam’s request, but Liverpool are expected to return with a higher bid than the Ã?£4m that was turned down last Friday. It is thought that Blackpool will accept around Ã?£6m for the player, which would earn Rangers a Ã?£600,000 windfall.

 

“We’ve lost one player and part of the situation now is balancing how much it’s going to cost to get us one or maybe two players,” said Smith. “We’ll just wait and see who we can get. I don’t know if or when we will be able to get somebody in or not. The January window is never an easy one in which to bring in any player.”

 

Rangers have also been linked with loan deals for Kris Boyd and Nacho Novo, with the latter thought to be a fall-back option if other targets cannot be brought in.

 

Celtic are also expected to finalise at least one signing this week, after a scan confirmed that Daniel Majstorovic will miss three weeks with a hamstring injury. With Glenn Loovens having only just returned to training, Thomas Rogne is the only fit centre-back available to manager Neil Lennon, but as of last night Nottingham Forest had not received a bid for Kelvin Wilson, who has already signed a pre-contract agreement with the club.

 

The Championship side are not keen to sell the player, though, since it will leave Billy Davies short of defensive options. “I’ve got no doubt what the situation is – he’s a very important player for us and we’re not here to do anyone any favours except ourselves,” the Forest manager said.

 

Celtic are also thought to be interested in Noel Hunt, the former Dundee United striker who now plays for Reading. Hunt is out of contract in the summer and is attracting the attention of Wolves, where his brother, Stephen, plays. But Lennon is believed to be interested in the player, who could be prised away from Reading for �£350,000 in this window.

 

http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/spl/rangers/commons-top-of-ibrox-agenda-as-rangers-weigh-up-signing-options-1.1081588

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Id like to see us land Commons, would be a useful addition and give us bit more creativity.

 

If LIverpool could nip on and get a offer Blackpool would accept then its an nice payday to land Commons.

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Id like to see us land Commons, would be a useful addition and give us bit more creativity.

 

If LIverpool could nip on and get a offer Blackpool would accept then its an nice payday to land Commons.

 

I think you can be fairly sure Adam is moving before the end of the month and �£600k is the least we can expect - but exactly when we would receive it in the bank is quite another thing and our big problem these days is undoubtedly cash flow.

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I think you can be fairly sure Adam is moving before the end of the month and �£600k is the least we can expect - but exactly when we would receive it in the bank is quite another thing and our big problem these days is undoubtedly cash flow.

 

This is one thing that confuses me with the bank running things. Surely its in their best interest to runs things best for the club and that obviously means assisting the club to win the league to get into the CL and getting a 10million windfall. So with a couple of payments entering with the same of Miller and probably the move on for Adam using 1 of these payments isnt going to harm things especially when there is also additional UEFA cup cash to come in.

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This is one thing that confuses me with the bank running things. Surely its in their best interest to runs things best for the club and that obviously means assisting the club to win the league to get into the CL and getting a 10million windfall. So with a couple of payments entering with the same of Miller and probably the move on for Adam using 1 of these payments isnt going to harm things especially when there is also additional UEFA cup cash to come in.

 

No, from the bank's perspective, the best outcome is to spend no money and still qualify for the CL. But that would be a strategic outcome and I can tell you from personal experience that today's banks cannot get their heads far enough out of their arses to see beyond the end of the week, never mind think strategically. Perhaps if their balance sheets look sufficiently healed by the end of this year we may see some sense return but I've been amazed at the headless chicken behaviour of several banks these last couple of years - some of it below schoolboy stuff and really pathetic. More than a few business relationships will never recover.

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Exclusive by Matthew Lindsay

 

Share 25 Jan 2011

 

Ted McMinn today told Rangers boss Walter Smith he won’t need to sign a new striker if he succeeds in landing his close friend Kris Commons from Derby County.

 

For he reckons Scotland star Commons is capable of scoring 15 goals for the Gers from midfield in the second half of the season – and helping them retain the Scottish title.

 

Rangers cult hero McMinn was delighted to hear that his old club was preparing to make Derby a �£450,000 offer for the unsettled 27-year-old.

 

The Glasgow club had been tracking the player, who is out of contract in the summer, for some time and had intended to snap him on a Bosman free transfer in the summer.

 

But the departure of top scorer Kenny Miller to Bursaspor for �£400,000 last week means they need to strengthen immediately and also have the funds to do so.

 

McMinn, who was affectionately known as the Tin Man at Ibrox due to his unusual running style, feels Rangers fans will quickly forget about Miller if they get Commons.

 

He said: “Kris isn’t really a striker as such, but he pitches in with a lot of goals.

 

“He hasn’t been used regularly in recent weeks, and has been substituted in games and his tally for the season still stands at 14.

 

“The Rangers fans would love him. He is very similar to Steven Naismith, who has had a superb season, in many respects.

 

“He is a tireless worker, he is fast, he reads the game brilliantly and has an eye for goal.

 

“He has a wonderful left foot. He is not quite in the same bracket as Davie Cooper, who I was lucky enough to play with at Rangers, but nobody is. Having said that, he is not far off it. He is a magician with his left foot.

 

“I think he would be a great signing for Rangers. I think he would love it up there as well. He has the chance to win three trophies – the SPL, the League Cup and the Scottish Cup – and to play in Europe.

 

“What can he hope to do at Derby? Possibly win the league one year? Maybe win promotion one season? Lift the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy perhaps?

 

“If he moved to Scotland he could play in the Champions League.

 

“He has played in derby matches for Nottingham Forest against Derby County and for Derby County against Nottingham Forest. He has also moved from one club to the other and has taken a lot of abuse for it.

 

“He won’t have experienced anything quite like the Old Firm match or a rivalry as intense as the one between Celtic and Rangers but I am sure he would cope with it with the experience he has gained in his career.” McMinn believes former Stoke City and Nottingham Forest player Commons, who has also been attracting the interest of Celtic in recent weeks, must get away from Derby to revitalise his career.

 

The seven-times capped player, handed a call-up for his adopted homeland by former national boss George Burley two years ago, has suffered an alarming form slump in recent weeks.

 

He has been publicly criticised on several occasions by his manager Nigel Clough after refusing to agree an extension to his current deal and has even been involved in on-field bust-ups with team-mates.

 

McMinn said: “Kris has come in for a lot of stick from the manager. I have found that quite strange. To my mind, you wrap your prize asset in cotton wool. Nigel has publicly criticised him on several occasions.

 

“If I was Kris and I switched on the radio to hear my manager having a go at me I would be saying: ‘That’s my boss slagging me off there! Do I really want to be here?’

 

“He hasn’t played well, but, in the circumstances, I’m not surprised.

 

“The reason he hasn’t signed a new contract is, purely and simply, about money. Kris is the top goalscorer at the club this season and he believes he is not being offered what he is worth.

 

“His spell of poor form this season started when the speculation about his future started and when his manager started to criticise. That sort of uncertainty can be unsettling.

 

“He has a manager in one ear saying to him: ‘Sign on the dottted line’. Then he has an agent in his other ear saying: ‘I can get you this elsewhere’. It can be very confusing.”

 

McMinn added: “He has got involved in a few altercations with his own team-mates as well.

 

“He is their designated free-kick taker, but in one game this season Alberto Bueno, who is on loan from a club in Spain, tried to take one and they got involved in a disagreement. Afterwards, the manager came out and backed Bueno.

 

“Personally, with all that going on, I think it is time for a fresh start for Kris. He is still young, just 27, and has a good few years ahead of him at a high level. He would love it at Rangers as well.

 

“He has had injury problems in the past which curtailed his involvement in the first team, but he has fully recovered from them this season and was playing brilliantly.

 

“If he went to Rangers he would pitch in with 15 goals easy.”

 

Evening Times

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