Manager's future comes before mine, insists Boyd

Published on Saturday 7 November 2009 20:29

KRIS BOYD has goals in mind. But, as he closes in on Henrik Larsson's record as the SPL's all-time top scorer, he says it's not necessarily the ones on the pitch that are occupying his thoughts.

His contract is due to expire in the summer but he says he isn't even looking that far ahead. Not when there are more pressing goals. The club's financial plight is well-documented and the bank would prefer to cash in on players while they have the chance in January so Boyd's smile is a wry one when asked if contract-extension talks have stalled. "They never started. There's not been any, so they haven't started or stopped," he says. "There's a few in my position. I'm only a player. There's a full management team out of contract and with the club in the state it is I wouldn't worry too much about a player.There are more important things to worry about than Kris Boyd's contract.

"I said a couple of weeks ago, I was taking every game one at a time. The most important thing for me to focus on is each game. I'm not going to look to the long term because I don't know if it will be here or not. That's out of my hands."

He is keen to see the subject of Walter Smith's contract addressed, along with the rest of the coaching staff, saying that while the clock may be ticking on his own Ibrox career, he has more time to play with than the management. Their contracts are up at the turn of the year giving them little room to manoeuvre. He says he at least still has choices.

The club had accepted a bid from Birmingham City of 3.8 million last January but Boyd refused personal terms and opted to stay in Glasgow and battle for greater involvement at Rangers. It is the kind of defiant move he says he would consider again should another club come in for him when the transfer window opens.

"I don't need to leave. I think I said that when the bid was accepted from Birmingham. I felt it was right for me to stay so if I feel it's right for me to stay in January, I'll stay. In football, and in life, you get feelings that you should do one thing or another. I'm no different from anybody else, it's what I feel is right for me. When you look at the club and the state it's in, there might be an offer that they can't refuse or whatever. There's nothing I can do about that. I just want to get out on the park and score goals."

In three of his four seasons at Rangers he has finished top scorer in the SPL and although, prior to yesterday's fixtures, he had only managed eight starts in the current campaign, he had scored five goals, leaving him top scorer at the club. Given his previous tallies of between 20 and 30 SPL goals a season, he knows that seeing out the season at Rangers would surely allow him to usurp Larsson and he believes he could also win more silverware.

"There's no point in looking back. I look forward. I could have gone (to Birmingham] and probably been playing in the Premiership now but it's history now.

"I look forward to the games we've got coming up with Rangers. We are still in with a chance in Europe and we have a semi-final in the CIS Cup as well so we have games to look forward to. We need to win every league game as well, that's what comes with playing at this level.

"We were in a good position last year and I don't think there would have been anything worse than leaving and looking at the boys picking up a trophy at the end of the season, knowing I had been a part of that at the beginning and nothing to do with it at the end. That was a decision I had to make and I think I made the right one. There's not many people can say they've won a league championship medal with Rangers."

A Rangers fan, he is desperate for the club to sort itself out and would love to see a buyer materialise in the nick of time to safeguard the future of the management as well as find the cash to extend his own stay in Govan, but he says he can't let it prey too heavily on his mind as January approaches.

"It's part and parcel of being a football player, these things happen. I think we would rather have (people wanting to buy us] than not. If they're doing that you must be doing your job right. For me the most important thing is to be on the park on a Saturday, get back to scoring goals and hopefully add to my tally."

After a slow start by his own standards, he now feels he is beginning to find a bit of form, and having regained some match sharpness, is edging closer to where he was last term. But the club's form has also been stuttering. Looking back on the midweek match against Unirea, Smith says the problems in Europe reflect those they are contending with in SPL business.

"When you look at the way we have been (in the Champions League] we've had two away draws and lost heavily at home on two occasions, which is quite an unusual situation. There is a frustration on my own part that the Champions League has thrown up a bit of what we have had in our domestic season in terms of inconsistency of performance."

But frustration is a common emotion at Ibrox these days. Game by game, player by player, no-one knows what to expect.

"To be in a Rangers' starting eleven is a big privilege", says Boyd. "That's what I think about. That's the most important thing for me. I can't look too much into the future because I don't know what it is or what's going to happen."

Which is why, while Boyd still has goals in mind, most are fairly short-term.