Nerlinger leaves Rangers

Rangers have confirmed they have parted company with Christian Nerlinger after the German agreed a pay-off settlement.

The former Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund midfielder had a year of his current deal still to run.

But he decided to accept the offer as he knew he did not feature in manager Alex McLeish’s plans, along with summer signings Nuno Capucho and Emerson.

McLeish told the club’s official website, www.rangers.co.uk: “We have concluded a deal with Christian as he was not in the plans.

“Whatever grievances he has with me then that’s fine but I had to be pro-active.

“The way the squad is at the minute he could have been playing every week but that would have given him the wrong idea.

“I wish him all the best. It’s nothing personal – simply business.”

Nerlinger, who has been capped six times for Germany, was a Dick Advocaat signing in the summer of 2001, costing £1.8m (€2.7m) from Borussia Dortmund.

He achieved the distinction of scoring goals for Rangers in his first games in four separate competitions – the Bank of Scotland Premier League, the Tennent’s Scottish Cup, CIS Insurance Cup and the Champions League.

He even scored in his first games in both the Champions League qualifiers and the group stage proper.

But his Ibrox career was wrecked by injury, with a foot problem picked up in his first season taking six months to heal.

By then McLeish was installed as manager and Nerlinger was rarely able to play a significant number of consecutive games for the new boss.

This season, he scored the equalising goal in a 2-1 Champions League win over Stuttgart and netted a hat-trick against Forfar in the CIS Insurance Cup.

But the fact that Celtic were storming away in the league forced McLeish to make radical overhaul plans and Nerlinger was one of the the first to be earmarked for the exit door.

Meanwhile, skilful forward Hamed Namouchi is to undergo a scan on the knee he damaged against Motherwell on Saturday.

The 20-year-old was one of the scorers in a 4-0 Ibrox romp but suffered medial ligament damage in a collision with Well goalkeeper Gordon Marshall.

He has already been ruled out of next week’s trip to Celtic and may miss the other two remaining fixtures as well.

McLeish said: “It is a shame because he had played really well. He linked up well with Steven Thompson.”