MARK Hateley is on his way out of Ibrox, despite the fact that
Rangers' assistant manager Archie Knox yesterday described reports that
the injured striker was about to join Queen's Park Rangers as
''speculation.''
Hateley will travel down to London tomorrow, and subject to the usual
medical, will join the Loftus Road club in a deal estimated at #1.5m.
The big striker also will become assistant manager to his former Ibrox
team-mate, Ray Wilkins.
Knox was in charge at Ibrox as manager Walter Smith travelled to
Germany last night to see Borussia Dortmund, Rangers next Champions'
League opponents, in action against Eintracht Frankfurt in the
Bundesliga, and when asked about the Hateley situation, he said:
''There's always going to be speculation. There is nothing concrete, and
there has been no bid.''
But then it emerged that Hateley's agent was having talks with Queen's
Park Rangers manager Wilkins about personal terms for the man who
finished up as Rangers top scorer last season.
Wilkins has made no secret of the fact that he wanted to unload some
of the #6m the London club received from Newcastle United for Les
Ferdinand to bring Hateley back to England, and the big fellow, who has
played in England, Italy, France and Scotland, now is on the move again.
Meantime, Hateley's other priority is to get himself back to full
fitness following knee and ankle injuries and Knox said: ''He is walking
about fine and it shouldn't be too long before he is back training.''
That now looks certain to be in London.
On the home front, Rangers bid to maintain their 100% domestic record
when they entertain Hibernian at Ibrox this afternoon, but there is a
doubt over left back Davie Robertson, who had to be taken off against
Celtic last Tuesday night with a hamstring injury. The injury is not a
bad one, but with the match against Dortmund coming up next Wednesday,
Rangers may decide to give him an extra few days to get himself fully
fit.
''Not that we can afford to look ahead to Wednesday,'' said Knox. ''We
have Hibernian tomorrow and that should be enough to occupy all our
thoughts for the moment. We will have the same squad as we had for the
Celtic match, plus Ian Ferguson, who is back after a hamstring injury.''
Paul Gascoigne, who started on the bench at Falkirk last week, will
definitely play from the start against Hibernian, and Russian striker
Oleg Salenko will again team up with Ally McCoist.
Falkirk, who have had a dreadful start to the season, wilol be hoping
to pick up their first points whenh they meet Motherwell at Brockville
and manager John Lambie said yesterday: ''Losing our opening three games
isn't good form, but all we can do is keep working hard and hope we get
a long overdue rub-of-the-green.
''We don't want a gap to develop between ourselves and the other
teams. It's going to be a long, hard season and we can't afford to give
our rivals a few points of a start.''
Mo Johnston and David Weir have both passed fitness tests and will
play, but Johnston's strike-partner Colin McDonald will miss the match
after picking up an ankle injury.
Motherwell manager Alex McLeish will be looking for a boost after
Wednesday night's Coca-Cola Cup defeat by Aberdeen. He said: ''There is
a very fine line between success and failure at the moment. Although we
lost 2-1 to Aberdeen, we had the better chances in the match and could
just as easily have won.
''Despite the defeat the boys played well in the match and I'm hoping
they can keep it going at Brockville.''
McLeish will be without midfielder Paul Lambert and there are doubts
about left back Rob McKinnon.
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