Smith ready to offload fringe players

Rangers manager Walter Smith insists his priority in the January transfer window will be to trim his squad rather than add any new faces.

Smith was yesterday linked with Hibernian midfielder Dean Shiels, whose contract expires in the summer, but the Ibrox manager emphasised the priority is to reduce his squad in the coming weeks.

“When I returned to Rangers (in January 2007), it was the first time I had really experienced that sort of situation with the window and there are a great deal of rumours at the moment,” he said.

“Of course, we have scouts in place as people do at every club but, first and foremost, we must adjust our current squad before we look at bringing bodies in.”

Smith has admitted he would be happy to cut down his first-team squad, sparking increased speculation over the future of a number of fringe players.

There have been claims that Deportivo La Coruna are interested in Spanish striker Nacho Novo, but Smith has had no firm enquiries.

“We would hope to be active in the transfer market in terms of bringing players in but that is dependent on who we get out,” he said.

“We have too many lads in the group who are not playing and they don’t like that, which means it’s not conducive to having a good squad.

“Nacho is going to Spain in one newspaper then going to Hull in another and there’s quite a gap between the two.

“We get to the open season when people are free to speculate but the fact is we’ve had no contact at this stage regarding any of our players.

“We will just have to wait and see what happens. You go for a few months when the transfer window is closed and you don’t have any speculation, but now it has started.”