Walter's wish list

AS HIS team toiled last Saturday afternoon, what thoughts do you suppose went through Sir David Murray's head? For instance, wouldn't the chairman have been entitled to wonder why his own side were so desperately short of imagination and penetration despite costing almost £3m more to assemble than Gordon Strachan's eleven?

If Murray questioned Walter Smith's purchases in that moment then it would have been understandable, for Smith has signed almost 25 players since he returned to Ibrox two years ago this week, a dozen million-pounders among them and 10 at 2m-plus. For the first time in six years, Rangers fielded a more expensive team in the collision of the Old Firm yet when chasing an equaliser all that possession and all that Murray dough didn't bring a single scoring chance worthy of the name.

He's too loyal to his manager to admit it but Murray wouldn't be human if he wasn't galled at some of the financial waste at Ibrox. On the bench against Celtic were Kyle Lafferty and Lee McCulloch. In fees alone that pair of disappointments cost 5.25m, the kind of cash that Smith can only dream about spending now. Elsewhere, unused and so far out of the picture that most fans would struggle to recognise him on civvy street, was Maurice Edu, brought to Glasgow for an eye-watering 2.5m. Edu has played twice for Rangers.

Somewhere in the margins was Andrius Velicka, the lesser-spotted million-pound striker who has yet to play a full 90 minutes for his club. To be fair to him, he's only had two goes at it. In August. Per minute played he must be one of the most extravagantly rewarded footballers in the world game.

Murray has got precious little reward for a combined spend of 8.75m which rises, at a guess, by 50 grand a week in salaries for these four players. That's knocking on for 10m in total and all Rangers had to show for it last Saturday against Celtic was 28 minutes off the bench from Lafferty.

The kudos Smith gained in the Carlos Cuellar lottery win has gone now. Had he reinvested the cash more wisely then he'd be in decent shape. But he's not.

His ratio of duds to quality is too high. He has 10 players he is keen to get rid of but has had only one nibble. He needs to sell in order to buy and right now, as a matter of urgency, he needs a new full-back, at least one centre-half, a creative left-sided midfielder with pace and an end product and a goalscorer that might ease the burden on Kris Boyd. Some of the diehards of Ibrox will also tell you that he also needs a new captain. Barry Ferguson is losing support quickly and it's understandable. Ferguson was injured for the first nine matches of the SPL and Rangers won seven, lost one and drew one. They were level on points with Celtic when he returned to the team. In the 11 games since, they have won six, lost three and drawn two and have fallen seven points behind their great rivals.

There is no doubt that Ferguson and Pedro Mendes struggle in each other's company. Mendes was much more effective when he had Kevin Thomson with him in the midfield but Rangers still lacked pace and spark out wide. Steven Davis plays wide right and is not at his best there. He's more of a central player. With the exception of Steven Naismith (only now getting things together after a long-term injury) Rangers are painfully short of trickery. If they can't bludgeon a team then they're in trouble. They have fallen seven points behind Celtic because they are too often incapable of turning vast chunks of possession into real chances and goals.

On many occasions Shunsuke Nakamura, Aiden McGeady and Shaun Maloney have got their team out of tight spots with a moment of craft. Smith has a huge squad but given the money he has spent it is staggering how low on flair he really is.

He all but admits this himself. "We've not really been in a situation where the opposition have battered us," he said of Rangers' recent travails.

"The reasons we haven't won the games has been down to our own inadequacy rather than anybody being better than us. I don't think we've had more territorial advantage than we had in the game against Hearts at Tynecastle and yet we never looked like a scoring a goal. We lost two poor goals and these are the things that have been with us for the majority of the season.

"In Paisley (where they lost 1-0 to St Mirren] we had the vast majority of possession and hardly created any opportunities until the last few minutes. In the second half of the season we need to find an extra edge in our play."

Smith is at something of a crossroads now, a seminal moment is upon us. If he gets it right in the transfer window Rangers might yet mount a challenge, if he gets it wrong it is all over for this season and – with all that Champions League money Celtic would gather up – possibly for many more seasons beyond. The weeks ahead are among the most critical of Smith's long career.

If he offloads some of his deadbeats then he's got some cash to play with and this time he had better spend it wisely. He cannot have another Velicka or another Edu. What he needs is a rock at the heart of his defence. Tonel of Sporting Lisbon has been mooted. Lee Wilkie of Dundee United wouldn't be the worst choice. Christophe Berra would probably be the best. Berra is a fine defender and a big character. A leader. A captain in the making. Himself and Madjid Bougherra – no approaches for him yet despite all the talk – would be a partnership with huge potential.

All Rangers people will be hoping against hope that Naismith comes back a confident player for his devil is exactly what they need. Dean Shiels is a rumoured target but Andrew Driver, the hard-running and fast-improving Hearts winger, has a lot more about him. More pace and more strength. He destroyed Andreas Hinkel recently, for instance. Naismith on one side and Driver on the other. Reasonable. This would also give big Lafferty a chance to play in the one position he has a chance of doing well in; centre-forward. Rangers are going to need options up there because Alan Gow won't be returning to the club and Nacho Novo should attract an offer elsewhere. Velicka would have a certain cachet in Lithuania. Or that's what his manager is praying for any road. Clear the decks there and there's a small chance to get the finance together for Steven Fletcher of Hibs. The alternative, it seems, is Lee Miller of Aberdeen. If Smith signs the poor man's Boyd then he may as well raise the white flag above Ibrox there and then. He won't improve Rangers.

Loads of questions, then. And loads of pressure. Not that Kenny Miller is showing it. "I don't think they (Celtic] are any better than us," he said on Friday. "They've obviously got a lot of grit, they can go to away games and grind out a 1-0 or a 2-1 and that's something we've not been doing. They've gone on an 11 or 12-game winning run and that's not something we've been able to do. We're lucky if we've put three together this year. But I think we're a very good team. Come May I still feel we'll be top of the pile. We're good enough to win the league. We're more than capable of doing it."

Not without new blood they're not. Not without their manager getting shot of his also-rans and hitting the bullseye with every single deal he does in the next month.