RANGERS yesterday added a fourth Italian Serie A man, Marco Negri, to their foreign colony, but there were doubts about Dutch keeper Oscar Moens hanging his jersey on an Ibrox peg in the new season.
It was just another day in the life of manager Walter Smith, even if it was his first after returning from holiday, but he did discover that a mention in the Honours List does not bring with it a reduction in the workload.
Negri, Perugia's striker, cost Rangers #3.5m and brings the summer spending spree up to more than #11m.
Smith did not rule out a successful conclusion to the Moens deal, but the AZ Alkmaar goalie, whose enthusiasm for a move to Scotland, according to Dutch sources, had been debatable from the start, went home after two days of talks which did not produce a positive result and is reputedly hoping for a move to either Real Madrid or AS Roma.
''If the deal falls through we will go for another keeper,'' said Smith with admirable pragmatism.
The Ibrox club have been chasing a new striker all summer, but Negri, the top scorer for Perugia in the past two years, fits the bill nicely. He joins compatriots Lorenzo Amorouso of Fiorentina and Sergio Porrini of Juventus, not to mention Negri's former team-mate at Perugia, teenager Rino Gattuso, in the growing Ibrox Italian quarter.
Speaking through his interpreter, otherwise his agent, Vincenozo Marovito, the new man said: ''I have been given a big chance and I couldn't miss it. I am delighted to come to such a big club and I cannot imagine not taking this opportunity.''
As the rain pelted down outside the window overlooking the Ibrox pitch, the powerful striker admitted he had never been to Scotland before. ''The weather . . .'' he said in English with a suitable shrug of his shoulders.
He was happy that other Italians would be welcoming him into the fold but insisted he would have come if he had been the first. ''The chance to play in Europe in the Champions' League with all the other new players coming to Rangers is exciting. It will be difficult to get so many new players to play together quickly, but maybe intelligent players after two or three weeks training can get together quite fast.''
Negri was wanted by Atletico Madrid among others but news of Rangers' signing swoops, as well as the retention of Brian Laudrup, was influential in his decision. He has signed a four-year contract.
Smith said he was one of the players they had been tracking for some time. Now he reckons there may only be a couple more signings to come, but was non-committal when asked about the possibility of Stefan Schwarz, the Swedish international team-mate of Jonas Thern who is already on the Ibrox books, being next. That probably means the Fiorentina man will be joining shortly.
Perugia, managed by Servio Scala, one of the multitude of candidates mentioned for the Celtic coach job, have just been relegated, despite the 26-year-old Negri's collection of 15 goals.
Moens clearly has his own ideas about his future but it seems he had not even told his Dutch club that he was speaking to Rangers, although AZ were keen to see him accept the transfer.
In Moens' case, reports from Holland indicated that, at heart, the keeper had not wanted to go to Scotland, nor did his wife, but his agent, Mino Riaola, yesterday was making ominous noises about the let-down he and his client had felt after the Ibrox discussions.
Riaola said: ''I have spoken again with Rangers on the telephone, but their offer did not improve a lot. Oscar will not be moving to Glasgow unless they further improve the deal on offer to him.'' Smith said he did not think there was a great gap to close.
Meanwhile, Michael Laudrup yesterday signed for Ajax despite admitting he could have doubled his money if he had listened to approaches from ''Porto, Rangers and Celtic''.
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