RANGERS opened talks with the Scotland winger Craig Conway yesterday but are preparing themselves for the disappointment of missing out on the Israeli striker Tomer Hemed.
Ally McCoist, the Rangers manager, met Conway at Murray Park yesterday. The 26-year-old is a free agent after five years at Dundee United and would give Rangers depth on the left of midfield.
Conway has been interesting clubs in the npower Championship but Rangers have been keen on signing both him and his Tannadice team-mate David Goodwillie, although the latter could cost around £1.5m.
No offer was made to Conway yesterday, but talks were held with the player and his agent, Mark Donaghy, and all parties will consider their options in the coming days.
Conway has been capped twice by Scotland – earning his debut under George Burley in 2009 (2-0 defeat by Japan – he also came on as a substitute in the 3-0 win over Northern Ireland in the Carling Nations Cup) – and was a Scottish Cup winner with United in 2010. If he does sign, he will become the first arrival of McCoist’s reign as manager.
It had looked as though that would be Hemed, but Rangers have received discouraging news about competing interests for the 24-year-old. It is understood that Hemed has had approaches from the Spanish clubs Espanyol and Real Mallorca, who would be able to offer a far higher wage than Rangers could.
Hemed is available without a transfer fee, having reached the end of his contract with Maccabi Haifa.
The Scottish Premier League, meanwhile, has confirmed the second Old Firm fixture of next season will take place on a Wednesday evening between Christmas and New Year. The match at Celtic Park has been moved from its traditional slot on January 1 or 2 to December 28, with kick-off time still to be confirmed.
The switch follows pressure from the police and the Scottish government to not play the match at the weekend or on a bank holiday to try to reduce incidents of anti-social and sectarian behaviour that tend to spike on the day of an Old Firm game.
“Following the setting up of the Scottish Government’s Joint Action Group, there was a real pressure to reschedule Old Firm derbies away from weekends and bank holidays,” said an SPL spokesperson.
“We felt it was important for us to respond positively to the JAG process. Following consultation with the Police, Government and other members of the JAG, we have therefore agreed to schedule the second Old Firm match to a date that reduces the challenges associated with such games being played on bank holidays.”
A spokesman for the Rangers Supporters Trust felt that, although he could understand the logic behind the decision to move the fixture to midweek, there was a sense of frustration that the fans had again not been consulted.
“Policing concerns are ones that we can understand there is a legitimacy about,” he said. “But I’m extremely unhappy with politicians interfering in sporting events, thinking they can all of a sudden bring expertise to bear that different authorities don’t already have. Plus, yet again, we haven’t been consulted about it, meaning the fans are the last people to be considered, the people who pay for the game. We’re not happy with that at all.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article