Walter Smith attacks bank's iron grip on Rangers

• Walter Smith wraps up at training, but Rangers' financial restrictions have left him cold Picture: SNS

Although the transfer window is now open, Rangers' room for manoeuvre is strictly limited as Lloyds Banking Group tries to operate policies which will drive the club's debt down. Smith can recruit a new signing for the first team only if Rangers first sell someone, provided he keeps within his current wages budget. But he has been given no guarantees when it comes to being allowed to spend any money which comes in as transfer fees, and, as a result, he knows he may have to soldier on for the rest of the season with his present relatively small squad.

Smith believes there is an economic case, as well as a footballing one, to be made for a loosening of the purse-strings, and would argue that any money made by selling a player could be more than counterbalanced by the loss of revenue which would ensue from subsequent poorer results. And, aware that most other clubs in Scotland would love to have Rangers' 'restrictions', he said the relevant comparison was with clubs of a similar size.

"You feel as though the whole situation is a bit unfair from the football side of things," Smith said yesterday at Murray Park. "We do need a bit of help.

"You had the situation a couple of years ago when the boys put the banner up saying 'We Deserve Better'. Of course, they meant the supporters.

"Well, at times, you have to look at it from our side and realise that we do deserve better for what we've done. And by that I mean in comparison to clubs of similar stature.

"There obviously isn't a long-term view," he continued in reference to the bank. "They are only looking at it from a short-term perspective.

"Whether we think it's fair or not doesn't really matter, because we are not getting any kind of reaction any time we ask. So therefore we are well and truly in the hands of the bank. We just need to get on with it."

Rangers have slightly more leeway in which to operate than was the case when the bank first imposed conditions on the way in which the club was being run, and chief executive Martin Bain has not been told he must get rid of players at any price this month.But the problem for Smith is that he does not know exactly how much leeway he has, and is not at all confident that the bank would consult him on the economic consequences of the sale of a major player.

As far as he can tell, the real money which would come in from selling someone would count for more as far as the bank was concerned than the potential income from keeping that player. If another club were to offer a fee of 1 million for striker Kenny Miller, for example, the bank would be inclined to take it - no matter if, as a result of being deprived of their leading goalscorer, Rangers lost out on a far more lucrative Champions League campaign.

The club's performances in the Champions League this season have helped the financial position, but Smith knows there is only so long he can keep asking the same group of players to go on performing to that level. "It becomes a concern when you have to keep asking the same group of players to keep on delivering," he continued. "That's when you need a wee bit of help.

"Unfortunately, we are not going to get that help. We can't afford to bring in a loan player or anything like that.

"That's the situation we're in and we know we're in it. It's an unfortunate one for our club, but the bank are dictating the policy overall. That's what we have to put up with.

"If a player was sold it's not guaranteed that we would get all the money. If we transferred a player we might not get all the money and we have been told that. If someone left it would give us the opportunity to bring someone in on a similar wage. But transfer-wise we've been told there's no certainty we would get the money.

"The wage would obviously allow us to bring someone in. If we don't lose a player we won't be bringing anyone else in.

"Because we've managed to bring in a level of money through the Champions League and the championship wins we might not be under the same pressure to sell a player. That said, if a club offered a sum of money for one of our players then we wouldn't have the decision to make.

"Again, I don't think selling is a necessary aspect of what we need to do. It might have been different had we not had the Champions League money. In fact, I have no doubt that would be the case. But the choice and the decision will not be ours."

Until one or more players do leave Ibrox, Rangers' activity in the transfer market will be restricted to tentative enquiries about the possible availability of certain players. And so far they have not even had tentative enquiries about their own players.

Smith will relinquish his position at the end of the season, and hopes to go out on a high. His frustration at what he sees as the bank's interference with that hope is made all the worse by his knowledge that the country's financial sector has hardly been a model of prudential management in recent years.

"Of course the ironic aspect, not just for Rangers but for everybody, is that the banks are telling us what we can and can't do," he added. "Maybe someone should have done that with them a long time before they started."

Rangers were linked yesterday with a move for Honduran defender Victor Bernardez. The 28-year-old stopper is currently at Anderlecht, but is desperate to leave after losing his first-team place. Anderlecht have told Bernandez he can go for nothing and the player says Rangers are interested. He said: "I have heard about the interest from Rangers. I talk every day to Emilio Izaguirre at Celtic and I know he is very happy with his life in Scotland. We will see if a concrete offer comes in from Rangers. My agent is working hard to find me a new club."

Meanwhile, Smith his dismissed speculation linking Rangers with reported Celtic target, Norwegian striker Erik Huseklepp. "I think there is a wee bit of fantasy football going on there," he said. "We have never enquired about that player."