Ally McCoist plays down blow as ‘target’ Pawel Brozek opts for Celtic

RANGERS manager Ally McCoist last night tried to play down his disappointment after it was confirmed that Pawel Brozek, the Polish striker who had been among his signing targets, had opted to enter into contract negotiations with Celtic.

Speaking after his team’s 4-0 win against Hibernian at Ibrox, McCoist said: “I’d have to admit it’s a disappointment. All I would say is that I would use the word ‘target’ a little bit carefully. He’s a player we were looking at. I won’t lie to you, we were interested in him, but there were no specific bids. I have not had contact with the player or the agent. He’s absolutely within his rights to do what he thinks is best for himself.”

Trabzonspor, the Turkish club for whom Brozek currently plays, announced on their website yesterday morning that the 28-year-old would join Celtic on loan until the end of the season if an agreement could be reached. The statement read: “The negotiations which will be made in the aim of loaning our professional footballer Pawel Brozek to the Scottish club Celtic until the end of the current season are beginning.”

McCoist said that there had been no further developments with Nikica Jelavic’s proposed transfer to West Ham United, who had an offer turned down by Rangers last week. He also said that signing Jorge Claros, the Honduran midfielder who was on trial at Murray Park, was not a priority, for the moment at least.

“We are not just in a position to offer him a contract yet,” said McCoist. “We will sit down again probably tomorrow or Monday morning to discuss the situation. He has done very well. He played in a couple of games and he looks comfortable. I think we are slightly better covered in that position than we are in one or two [other] positions. That’s not to say I wouldn’t like him on board. But with [Lee] McCulloch, [Steven] Davis, [Maurice] Edu, boys like that, we are reasonably better off in that sort of area.”

Claros has returned to his Honduran club Motagua and their manager, Pepe Trevino, is unhappy at the player’s treatment. He said: “Jorge has a great future and will sign for a good club in Europe soon. Maybe it was not his time at Rangers – I don’t know why they didn’t sign him. Rangers took him for two weeks and now say they have money problems. They should have told him before that. He is a very good player and deserves to be treated better than this.”