Fran Sandaza will not go to Ibrox on the cheap

Fran Sandaza said last night that he will not sign a pre-contract agreement to join Rangers in the summer.

The striker, whose proposed move to Ibrox has been the subject of so much speculation, stated in broken English that “if a club wants me, they have to worth me”. The player meant that if Rangers are genuinely interested then they will have stump up St Johnstone’s asking price, believed to be around £300,000.

“I have worked so hard to get to this level,” Sandaza added, “and I don’t want to go to any club for cheap. I have not signed anything (with Rangers). I don’t know anything. My team is St Johnstone. They have not received any bid.”

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Sandaza’s manager, Steve Lomas, launched a scathing attack on the way Rangers do business in the wake of the Perth club’s 2-1 loss at McDiarmid Park. “Rangers are a big club but they’re behaving like a little club,” he said. “As a boy I was a Rangers fan. You saw their fans today. Great fans. But they must be feeling worried that they can’t pay for a Sandaza. I’d be concerned if I was a Rangers fan now.

“There should be a bit more leadership from the top at Rangers. This wouldn’t happen if David Murray was at the club. They want Fran on a pre-contract but a pre-contract is no good for the boy, no good for St Johnstone and no good for Rangers. I’m telling him that, if he stays and scores another ten goals before the end of the season, there will be more clubs looking for him. It won’t just be Rangers.

Ally McCoist refused to be drawn. “I don’t want to talk about that,” he said. When told of Lomas’s comments he simply repeated: “I don’t want to talk about transfers.”