In an ideal world, Ally McCoist would seek to build his side around Nikica Jelavic.
In his power and his aplomb, the Croat is a forceful presence in attack who is also capable of the deftest touches; he is a figure of growing authority and command. Yet McCoist is operating in less accommodating circumstances, a situation that demands resourcefulness and a hard-headed realism.
On Saturday, after Jelavic's two goals transformed a grinding but unrewarding Rangers display into a comfortable victory over Hibernian at Easter Road, McCoist insisted that any decision about the striker's future would belong to the manager alone. Then he joked to the media that, "I'm sure we'll be having this conversation for the next three or four weeks". The issue could turn out to be a defining one for McCoist, though.
It is believed that a bid of £10m would be enough to secure Jelavic's services, and Liverpool, West Bromwich Albion, Stoke City, Newcastle United and Leicester City have all been monitoring the Croatia internationalist. He is ready-made for the Barclay's Premier League, strong, selfless, tall enough to be troublesome in the air, with instincts that carry him into scoring positions. He has struck 14 times this season, even after seeming to become despondent at Rangers' failure to qualify for the Champions League group stages.
The reality for McCoist is that there is enough promise in Jelavic for a Premier League club to consider a fee between £8m to £10m as value for money. The striker will also want to test himself in England eventually and McCoist must accept the need to plan for his departure. "Every day, when I open the newspapers, I am moving to another club," Jelavic said. "It's nice to think so many teams are interested in me from the strongest league in the world. But I do not think about any transfer right now."
Yet McCoist can't defer his considerations. Twelve of Jelavic's goals this season have come in the Clydesdale Bank Premier League, and since Steven Naismith's knee injury ruled him out for the rest of the campaign, the Croat has become indispensable. He is a regular supply of goals, and also the focal point of the team's attacks, with Kyle Lafferty prone to injury and inconsistency, David Healy peripheral, and Kane Hemmings and Thomas Kind Bendiksen untried.
Although Rangers won the league after selling Kenny Miller last January when he was the club's top scorer, Jelavic was close to returning from injury at the time and was an obvious candidate to replace Miller as a source of goals but also reassurance. McCoist must still allow some breathing space to the thought that selling the Croat might still be a shrewd option.
If he was able to reinvest the money generated by the transfer, the Rangers manager could sign three new players: two forwards and a creative central midfielder. In the absence of Naismith, the Ibrox side lacks zest, a change of tempo, and also devilishness. At Easter Road on Saturday, their attacking play was often one-paced and, in the first-half, based around sending high balls up through the middle to Jelavic. There was more variety after the interval, when Bendiksen came off the bench and played just off the striker, but there is now an over-reliance on the Croat.
Rangers need fresh impetus, since Matt McKay, Alejandro Bedoya and Juanma Ortiz have yet to impose themselves. As with the sale of Jean-Alain Boumsong in January 2005 that allowed Alex McLeish to sign Barry Ferguson, Thomas Buffel and Sotirios Kyrgiakos, the income from the sale of Jelavic could be used to rejuvenate the squad.
McCoist has to balance that prospect with the difficulties of shopping in the mid-season window, when value for money is hard to achieve and clubs often make rash decisions. Even if the Rangers manager has targets in mind, he can't be certain that the deals could be completed, as he discovered last summer with the protracted and ultimately futile pursuit of David Goodwillie.
He would also have to integrate the new players quickly and effectively, without disrupting the dynamic within his squad. McKay and Bedoya have both shown how trying it can be to adjust to the demands and characteristics of a new environment. There are always options for an enterprising manager, and McCoist might explore the possibility of loan moves, but the challenge is still the same: to identify, capture and utilise the right players.
McCoist would also have to be certain that any fee received for Jelavic is not consumed by the club's financial needs. The failure to reach the group stages of either the Champions League or the Europa League affected the revenue that Craig Whyte expected the team to generate, but he might consider that the shrewder move is to spend the money on players who become assets, when there is a significant tax bill looming and, so, the potential of administration.
McCost would prefer to keep Jelavic, but must at least contemplate selling him on his own terms. It is a fraught dilemma, full of compromises and insecurities. McCoist's team are reliant on, and sustained by, Jelavic; yet the dependence is so great that if he was injured, the effect on Rangers' title challenge would be drastic. He is an advantage to the club, but also presents a conundrum.
Managers have to strategise for the long-term as well as react to current events, and McCoist is in that predicament now.
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