Rangers boss Ally McCoist in the dark over funds

Ally McCoist has yet to learn if he will be able to recruit anyone in the January window, either to stand in for the injured Steven Naismith or to strengthen other areas of the Rangers squad.

With the possibility of a crippling tax bill still hanging over the Ibrox club, the financial position in which owner Craig Whyte finds himself could have changed dramatically by the end of the year, and McCoist is aware that there might not be much room for manoeuvre on the transfer front.

“I haven’t had a good chat with Craig about January,” the manager said yesterday. “I don’t have any doubt we will be speaking and we’ll go over one or two things.

“In an ideal world we’d like to replace Steven in January, but we’re not in an ideal world at the moment. That is pretty obvious and time will tell on that. If you lose your top scorer you would like to replace him.

“You don’t know what’s around the corner. We just need to pile up the points: that’s all we can do. All we can do is keep winning games, and if we do that it will put us in a good position.

“We don’t speak about what is happening. We speak about the opposition and we speak about teams.

“I have huge admiration for the players. Over the years since I have been back at the club there have been different kinds of pressure, whether it’s been talk of administration or anything like that. Throughout all of that they’ve been thoroughly professional and great at their job.”

Naismith, who has been ruled out for the rest of the season with cruciate ligament damage, has been the driving force in the Rangers team this season along with Steven Davis, according to central defender Dorin Goian. “I think Steven Naismith and Steven Davis are the heart of this team,” the Romanian said. “They are very important players for Rangers and when they are on the pitch it is much easier.

“I spoke to Steven this week. He is a strong man, but even if he does not want to show that he is angry and upset I know what is in his heart, because I also was injured for a long time and I know for a footballer the worst moments are when you are not training with the rest of the team. I was out for two months, not eight like him, but it felt like an incredible time.”

McCoist concurred with Goian’s assessment of how important Naismith has been to the league leaders this season, but insisted that, even if no reinforcements arrived, his squad would be strong enough to compensate for the injured player’s absence. “I couldn’t disagree with what Dorin is saying. He’s new at the club and he recognises what an important player Steven is – we all do.

“But at the same time there’s nothing we can do about it now. Naisy is out for the season: we’ll obviously miss him. He’s our top scorer and arguably one of the players of the season up until now. Who wouldn’t miss him?

“There’s no use in us getting down about it. We’ve shown when he was suspended that we can win games without him and we’re going to have to win games without Naisy now.

“We have got players who can come in. We have talented players who haven’t been playing regularly who will look upon this as an ideal opportunity to break into the team. We want competition for places and I feel we’re getting it this year. [Nikica] Jelavic was out last season but others stepped up to the plate.

“I think we have goals in the team, and of course others will now have to step up There is no doubt about that. Losing Naisy’s goals is a blow, but others can come in.”

The responsibility of making up for those lost goals will be shared, and similarly, McCoist does not intend to ask just one player to slot into the Naismith role in the team. “If you look at the last two games we’ve played Jig [Lee McCulloch] in the middle of a five with two wider boys and Jelavic up front. Then we got the injury to Naisy and we changed it and went to a straight four with Lafferty and Jelavic in a 4-4-2.

“I think it’s important that you aren’t one-dimensional. There’s no point changing things for the sake of a change – if things are going well you have to appreciate that. But we had the wee change at Tynecastle and it worked for us. Sometimes it doesn’t work.

“We had the change again at Pittodrie [where Naismith picked up his injury] and to be honest I think the injury forced us into a change that suited us, believe it or not. But I wouldn’t just change it like for like, because I don’t think there is another Naismith going about to be honest.”

Rangers will also be without McCulloch for this afternoon’s home game against Dundee United, and Jamie Ness remains on the injury list, but Kyle Bartley is available again – though McCoist would not say if or where he plans to play him.

He was forthcoming when asked about Allan McGregor, however, insisting that he would keep faith in the goalkeeper despite his onfield blunder at Pittodrie.