Smith launches blistering attack on Rangers bankers
The outburst from the Ibrox manager is totally at odds with claims from American based Chairman Al Johnston and Chief Executive Martin Bain who have gone out of their way at various times to state that the club is run independent of Lloyds.
Smith made similar claims in October 2009 and was quickly put right by Lloyds and Rangers who issued a website statement contradicting their manager.
Asked about the prospects of signing anyone during the transfer window the Rangers boss replied: “We can’t afford to bring in a loan player or anything like that.”
If the bank are dictating signing policy they were certainly generous to the Rangers boss last summer.
As well as splashing out £4m for Nikita Jelavic from Rapid Vienna and a similar commitment on wages Smith was able to go shopping in the English Premiership- the most expensive market in football.
Former England star James Beattie was signed from Stoke for £1.5m while a similar amount was paid to Manchester City in a loan fee and wages to sign Vladmir Weiss for a season.
Weiss, Beattie and Jelavic have scored five SPL goals for Rangers this season- one more than Paddy McCourt.
After losing to Celtic the pressure is on Smith with the cheque book solution no longer an option.
Reports that ‘billionaire’ Craig Whyte is about to buy the club and start splashing the cash clearly haven’t impressed the veteran Rangers manager.
In a rant certain to upset the Lloyds Group who are propping up the beleaguered Murray empire the Rangers boss wasn’t shy to blame the clubs’ bankers for his problems.
“You feel as though the whole situation is a bit unfair from the football side of things,” Smith said. “We do need a bit of help.
“It becomes a concern when you have to keep asking the same group of players to keep on delivering. That’s when you need a wee bit of help.
“Unfortunately, we are not going to get that help. We can’t afford to bring in a loan player or anything like that.
“That’s the situation we’re in and we know we’re in it. It’s an unfortunate one for our club but the bank are dictating the policy overall.
“Whether we think it’s fair or not it doesn’t really matter because we are not getting any kind of reaction any time we ask about it. So therefore we are well and truly in the hands of the bank.
“Of course the ironic aspect, not just for Rangers but for everybody, is that the banks are telling us what we can and can’t do. Maybe someone should have done that with them a long time before they started.”
The delicate relationship between Rangers and Lloyds is bound to be strained by Smith’s public criticism of the company who are keeping Rangers and the Murray group afloat.
Lloyds inherited the Rangers account when they merged with HBOS who had been excessively generous with Murray when it came to spending.
In 2007 and 2008 Smith was able to spend generously bringing Steven Whittaker, Steven Naysmith, Lee McCulloch, Andrius Velicka, Kyle Lafferty, Jean Claude Darcheville, Kenny Miller, Pedro Mendes, Maurice Edu, Carlos Cuellar,Steve Davis, Daniel Cousin and Kyle Lafferty to Rangers for almost £30m.
That expenditure and a soaring wage bill have contributed greatly to Rangers recent domestic success and to the financial troubles of the club.
Reports that Smith could move for David Goodwillie or Erik Huseklepp have been dismissed by the Rangers boss who seems to be in the dark about current transfer policy.
“If a player was sold it’s not guaranteed that we would get all the money,” Smith explained. “If we transferred a player we might not get all the money and we have been told that.
“If someone left it would give us the opportunity to bring someone in on a similar wage. But transfer-wise we’ve been told there’s no certainty we would get the money.
“If we don’t lose a player we won’t be bringing anyone else in, if a club offered a sum of money for one of our players then we wouldn’t have the decision to make.
“I don’t think selling is a necessary aspect of what we need to do. It might have been different had we not had the Champions League money.
“In fact, I have no doubt that would be the case. But the choice and the decision will not be ours.”
Smith will step down as Rangers manager at the end of the season with Ally McCoist expected to move into the hot seat.
As well as their problems with Lloyds Rangers face an action from HMRC which could result in a fine of over £20m for offshore payments made to players over a five year period.
Coming to Video Celts over the weekend, a revealing insight to Artur Boruc’s life and times at Celtic.
Video of Celtic target Erik Huseklepp
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