Walter Smith hopes El-Hadji Diouf lets his football do the talking

IF some people's reputations precede them, El Hadji Diouf's fronts up as unobtrusively as a crazy man running down the street screaming like a banshee, wildly waving banners and setting off fireworks. Which prompts the question - is he is the kind of player Rangers can rely on while seeking some kind of equilibrium in high pressure head to heads against main rivals Hearts and Celtic in the coming days?

The Senegalese player's career has been bedevilled by the kind of controversy which has seen him earn the moniker of the most hated man in British football and he does not seem to be mellowing with age. Recently described as "lower than a sewer rat" by Queens Park Rangers manager Neil Warnock after he taunted Scotland international Jamie Mackie as he lay on the ground with a broken leg, in the past he has also been accused of racist abuse and convicted of assault after several separate incidents of spitting at opposition players and fans, including a Celtic supporter during a UEFA Cup tie at Parkhead in 2003, while he was playing for Liverpool.

But Rangers manager Walter Smith said he had no hesitation in moving to sign the 30-year-old as soon as he learned he was available to go out on loan. The Ibrox gaffer says he is only concerned with his abilities as a player and admitted he was weighing up the possibility of throwing him into the Old Firm Scottish Cup tie on Sunday.

"You are obviously aware of all those situations but things like that happen, players get involved in things like that a lot of the time. Obviously you hope that, when he signs, it will be for his football (that he is in the spotlight] because he is a good footballer. That for us is one of the main things. He has had his periods but I have had players like that before. Hopefully, when it comes to us he will be remembered for his football and I am sure he will be.

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"I would have thought he can play in Sunday's game. He is available for the Hearts game, he is fit and has been playing. He was dead keen to come up and he is dead keen to play right away. There was no question about that, he wants to get started and that's something we are obviously pleased with."

A ready-made target for the opposition support, he is unlikely to get an easy time should he feature against Hearts in the battle for second-place tonight and he will be public enemy No 1 during the weekend derby match but Smith is unperturbed. Having canvassed the opinion of a number of managers down south, including Sam Allardye who once claimed he was considering sending the player to a sports psychologist, he said he believes the player will cope with whatever verbal abuse he is subjected to.

"In Scotland that is part and parcel of it, isn't it? Maybe particularly here in this country.But over the years we've had a number of players who have had to handle that and who have got on with it. I would hope that is what he would do.

"I spoke to a number of people about the player. Everyone one of them, despite saying that he has his moments, were very complimentary about him as a player, and obviously, in a group situation he seems to be a really good lad who always gets on with his team-mates. So these are all good aspects.

"Things have happened with quite a number of players over the period. With all your players you just to make sure that they have an awareness of what can happen in games if they don't keep their temper. But he is an experienced player and he just needs to - and we need to help him to - handle that."

There won't be any special words of advice, though. " No, not really that. To my knowledge he hasn't been involved in anything particularly bad off the field, has he? There are differences if you are separating on the field and off the field aspects. We'll see, but there is no use pre-empting anything. His own history is there and, as I say, I hope he comes and the footballing part is what he is remembered for here."

With the Old Firm game likely to take care of itself, the more pressing priority is to prevent Hearts leapfrogging them into second-place in the latest league head to head, at Ibrox, tonight.

They will feel they had the upperhand despite Hearts defeating them 1-0 when they last met at Tynecastle, just over a week ago. That day Rangers dominated but couldn't find the net, tonight they are seeking revenge and, with James Beattie and Andy Webster off the wage bill, replaced by Northern Ireland international David Healy and Arsenal starlet Kyle Bartley, there is a belief within the club that, for all the risk wrapped up in Diouf's signing, the squad has been strengthened by the January dealings.

"All are available," said Smith of the new signings, as he ponders his squad for the next two matches. "They have all been playing, except Healy. He's not had a lot of games recently - just a few reserve games - but he's the only one.

"(Kyle] has been playing most games for Sheffield United this season so he is coming on. The people at Arsenal and at Sheffield United rate him very highly, so it will be good to have him. With the way things are, and the games that we have, he will get opportunities to get games."

Undoubtedly a fine reputation for a 19-year-old lad but all eyes will be on Diouf. In two high pressure matches, he is, after all, the man with the reputation to live down.