CRAIG MOORE'S (pounds) 500,000 transfer to Blackburn collapsed last night, casting doubt over Rangers' ability to add a new signing ahead of tomorrow's deadline for their Champions League qualifier.
The Ibrox club still remain hopeful of bringing in Gregory Vignal, the Liverpool left-back, and will hold further talks this morning to try to conclude a deal. Alex McLeish's hopes of bringing in further reinforcements, however, may now be put on hold.
Last night Rangers also said that talks aimed at bringing former Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Darren Anderton to Ibrox had ended without agreement. A statement said Rangers had been in ''preliminary'' talks with the 32-year-old former England international but both parties had decided not to take the discussions further.
If Anderton is not coming, it seems that Moore, deposed as captain and transfer-listed by Rangers after agreeing to play for Australia at the Olympics, is not going, at least for now.
Moore had left left his country's training camp in Greece to travel to Ewood Park on
Monday to hold signing talks after the clubs agreed a fee.
It is believed Blackburn were concerned over a potential problem with his knee surgery and that prompted them to alter the personal terms. The player's agent, John Viola, however, insisted last night there were no problems with Moore's fitness.
Viola also said he hoped to speak with another Premiership club within the next few days to put an end to speculation over the player's future.
He added: ''Another top English team have shown an interest in him and I have got a meeting with them. I am optimistic something can be done.'' Everton and Aston Villa have previously been credited with an interest in the player.
McLeish is keen to strengthen his midfield but the delay in offloading Moore means that is unlikely to happen before next week's crucial European tie. Rangers are likely to face CSKA Moscow for a place in the Champions League group phase, qualification for which would earn Rangers in excess of (pounds) 7m.
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