Boyd is back, but for how long?

Published on Monday 12 January 2009 23:17

KRIS Boyd will play for Rangers in tonight's Homecoming Scottish Cup tie against St Johnstone, despite reports yesterday of the resurrection of a projected move to Birmingham City which last week had been pronounced dead.

The idea that the Ibrox striker could move to the Championship club yesterday, which gathered momentum throughout the day, was triggered by a suggestion from Karren Brady, the Birmingham managing director, that despite the claim of the manager, Alex McLeish, last Thursday, the possibility of a deal was still alive.

But inquiries at the Midlands club revealed that any resolution to the stand-off would have to come from Boyd and his agent, Mark Donaghy, having a change of heart after their refusal of Birmingham's offer after they and the Rangers chairman, Sir David Murray, had agreed a fee in the region of 3.5 million.

Officials of Birmingham, including McLeish, were surprised by the player's rejection of personal terms – a basic wage of 12,000 per week plus a 5,000-a-match appearance fee – that would have increased his present basic salary at Ibrox by more than 200,000 a year. In the immediate aftermath, McLeish said that, as far as he was concerned, the deal was dead.

It is understood he now thinks he overstated the truth of the situation, although at one point he did qualify his comments by adding: "never say never in football". The possibility that Boyd will yet move south may be remote, but it does still exist. "It's not dead until it's dead, if you know what I mean," McLeish said yesterday. "But there are plans to do something else, so we will have to wait and see what happens."

The offer from McLeish and his board is final – it was described by Brady as "better than anything in the Championship and better than a few clubs in the Premier League would offer ... more than he's paid at Rangers" – and they will not put up any more money.

They have, however, told Boyd and his agent that, if they can be "creative" within the terms of the deal, Birmingham may be able to "structure something around it." That sounds too complicated to try to decipher, but what remains quite unambiguous and immovable is that the prospective buyers will not pay any more money than is already on the table. McLeish has turned his attention to other players but he has not completely written off the chances of yet acquiring Boyd, whom he signed for Rangers from Kilmarnock for 400,000 in January, 2006.

Meanwhile, agent Willie McKay has insisted Rangers did ask him to find buyers for a number of their players despite claims to the contrary from chairman Sir David Murray.

"I realise this is a sensitive issue but I'm not going to be made the scapegoat here," said McKay. "Martin Bain asked me to find possible buyers for Barry Ferguson and a number of other players. I will not be the only agent who has had this discussion with Rangers. I know for a fact that I'm not."