AS Rangers completed the short-term signing of Mark Hateley, and failed in a similar deal for Parma striker Alessandro Melli, as they attempted to achieve cover for their immediate problems, it emerged in Italy that Ibrox manager Walter Smith is involved in a #10m signing for next season.

Smith had talks with officials of Italian side Fiorentina last weekend over the future of their Argentinian star, Gabriel Batistuta. The striker, who captains the Serie A team, is treated like a god in Florence.

However, Smith has been quoted a transfer fee of #10m and this is currently being discussed between the Rangers manager and his chairman David Murray.

Batistuta is his country's record international scorer. His total of 35 is one more than Diego Maradona.

He has been a huge success in Italy, although this season his form has dipped as he has been closely marked. Fiorentina would agree to the sale only if Rangers could meet the enormous asking price.

Batistuta would be part of the new-look team manager Smith is putting together for next season. Already Swedish World Cup captain Jonas Thern has agreed to come to Glasgow when his contract with Roma ends in the summer.

Batistuta would be another major part of the jigsaw. It would be a high-profile signing and would take a sizeable portion of the budget that has been laid aside for Smith from the cash which has been pledged to Rangers by the Bahamas-based millionaire Joe Lewis.

Murray has already indicated - as recently as last month's agm which was called to approve the Lewis deal - that most of the #40m coming to the club would be spent on strengthening the team.

Batistuta played in the same Fiorentina side as Brian Laudrup, in unhappy times, when the side was relegated from Serie A. He first came to international prominence in 1991 when he finished top scorer in South America's Copa America tournament with six goals. Two years later he scored two spectacular goals to win that trophy for Argentina against Mexico.

Having played for Boca Juniors and River Plate in his native land, Batistuta moved to European football with Fiorentina for the 1991-92 season, and has been there since.

In a tale of two cheque books, Mark Hateley's signature was secured without the need for Rangers to pay a transfer fee to his club, Queens Park Rangers. Instead the Ibrox club have taken on the burden of his contract in a deal that lasts until the end of the season. His long-term future has not been decided.

''I feel as though I am coming home. It's like I have never been away,'' Hateley told journalists at Glasgow Airport yesterday. He has, in fact, been away for just over 18 months, having moved to London in September 1995 for #1.5m after five successful years with Rangers during which he scored 111 goals. Unpopular with the Rangers support at first, he eventually forged a striking partnership with Ally McCoist that is part of Ibrox folklore.

The deal to sign Melli fell through because Rangers were not prepared to meet the personal demands of the player, which would have made him by far the best-paid player at the club.

They were prepared to pay Parma's asking price of #2m for Melli, despite the fact he will be a free agent in the summer. With the Italian club lying second in Serie A, and therefore with a chance of the Italian championship as well as a place in the Champions' League even as runners-up, it is thought that Parma will now make him an offer to stay put.

Meanwhile, Celtic's Brian O'Neil is to join Nottingham Forest on a month's loan, although Celtic manager Tommy Burns has indicated that the move is unlikely to be permanent.

''It will be strictly a loan for that period,'' he said yesterday. Burns believes O'Neil will benefit more from playing first-team football for Forest as they try to stay in the Premiership, than he would from playing reserve football.

Forest had hoped to sign him in time to play today, but a delay means he will be registered in time to play on Tuesday.

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