Rangers' offer slammed as Kenny Miller heads to Cardiff

RANGERS suffered fresh frustration in their pursuit of new recruits yesterday when their bid to re-sign Kenny Miller from Bursaspor was rejected out of hand by the Turkish club.

Miller now looks set to make his return to the United Kingdom with Cardiff City instead after the Welsh club agreed to meet Bursaspor's e1 million valuation - around 880,000 - for the Scotland striker. He is expected to undergo a medical today with Cardiff, who lost 1-0 to Celtic in a friendly last night.

Rangers had offered less than half of that figure for Miller, closer to the 400,000 they received from Bursaspor for the 31-year-old in January when they sold him after failing to agree terms for an extension to his contract which was due to expire in the summer.

Miller signed a three-year deal with Bursaspor, but despite performing well for his new club, scoring five times in 15 appearances, he struggled to settle off the field in Turkey and recently made it clear he wished to come back to British football.

Rangers manager Ally McCoist last week welcomed the prospect of Miller joining the Ibrox club for the third time in his career, but expressed his fears that the Scottish champions could be financially outmuscled by English Championship clubs able to offer the player higher wages.

But Rangers were unwilling to pay Bursaspor more than they received for Miller six months ago, prompting a stinging rebuke from the Turkish club's director, Erkan Kamat, who is confident the player will complete a move to Cardiff. "The policy of Rangers is not good," said Kamat. "I don't like it. It is a ridiculously low offer. As far as we are concerned, Kenny Miller has been sold to Cardiff City. He is going to be their player and he is not going to Rangers. We are in a very bad position now. We have a Europa League match next week, Kenny is going and we need another striker. We want e1m to buy another player and we told Kenny's agent this. I told also Andrew Dickson (Rangers' head of football administration] this."

Rangers have seen a series of transfer targets elude them this summer. Since new owner and chairman Craig Whyte took the helm, only Spanish winger Juan Manuel Ortiz from Almeria has been added to McCoist's squad.

Israeli striker Tomer Hemed, former Dundee United winger Craig Conway and English midfielder Neil Danns all rebuffed Rangers' advances as they signed instead for Mallorca, Cardiff City and Leicester City respectively.

Rangers have also seen offers for Dundee United striker David Goodwillie, Hearts left-back Lee Wallace and Espanyol defender Raul Rodriguez rejected by their clubs. A bid for USA international midfielder Alejandro Bedoya has also been turned down by the 24-year-old's Swedish club Orebro, although Rangers may now try to sign the player on a pre-contract agreement ahead of him becoming a free agent in January.

Rangers are still waiting on a decision from Carlos Cuellar on his possible return to Ibrox. A 2m fee for the Spanish defender has been agreed with Aston Villa who signed Cuellar from Rangers for 7.5m three years ago.

The 29-year-old, currently recovering from injury and not expected to be fit until the middle of August, is considering whether to take the wage cut which will be necessary if he moves back to Scotland.

Rangers, who have also been linked with a move for Anderlecht's Hungarian international central defender Roland Juhasz, have until 11pm tonight to register their squad with Uefa for their Champions League third qualifying round tie against Malmo. Clubs are allowed to add one player, however, 24 hours before the the first leg of the ties next week.

McCoist's men take on the Swedish champions at Ibrox next Tuesday night in the first leg with the return in Malmo on either 2 or 3 August.