Ally McCoist needs to play his cards right

McCoist knows the odds are stacked against him having cash to splash on Rangers revolution

ALLY McCoist has long seen the problems, the search starts now for solutions. He knows the Rangers squad he will inherit as manager from Walter Smith this summer will require a major overhaul. He recognises he is unlikely to have much money to go about it. He appreciates the same demand for results will still be there regardless. The cards are on the table and he isn't looking at much of a hand. McCoist, though, is still ready to play and it won't be in his nature to fold.

"I'm under no illusions of the task ahead. I know it's going to be extremely difficult," he said. "I am already thinking about signing targets because we definitely need to bring in players. We've known the budget for 18 months now so you'd have to say we roughly know the hand we've been dealt. You might have a bad hand, but you can still play it well and I'm hoping we can do that."

McCoist will provide his own leadership, but he will need it on the field, too. David Weir may retire in the summer leaving a vacancy as captain. McCoist has not identified one as yet, but knows the type he is after. He played with a few of them. "It's arguably one of the most important decisions you have to make as a manager because this club has had fantastic captains," he said. "Names synonymous with this club, (Richard] Gough, (Terry] Butcher, (John] Greig, you can go back as far you like, Jock Shaw the lot, all wonderful captains and great men. It's vitally important that we have a great captain again."

If Weir is lost as a player, it is probable that an entirely new central defensive pairing will be needed, given that Madjid Bougherra may well view this season as his last, having long hinted at ambitions to play elsewhere. Andy Webster, seemingly a good candidate to replace Weir but plainly never rated by Smith, has already left for Hearts, while the lure of Liverpool proved too much for long-term prospect Danny Wilson. Given there is already a lack of cover in the position, McCoist could conceivably require three new centre-halves. And that is just for starters.

Other clubs may seek to buy Allan McGregor, the goalkeeper, and midfielder Steven Davis but, unlike Bougherra, neither have ever indicated a desire to leave and may well have a loyalty to McCoist. In attack, Kenny Miller has already gone - to Bursaspor a matter of months before his contract expired, though the signing last summer of Nikica Jelavic suggests that departure was anticipated. McCoist, however, is more likely than Smith to deploy a more open 4-4-2 formation so wanting to sign another forward and even an additional wide player would have to be considered probable.Which makes a minimum of five newcomers and counting.

Because, as McCoist himself touched upon, that is before the likelihood of all five loan players in the squad returning to their parent clubs. El-Hadji Diouf back to Blackburn, Vladimir Weiss to Manchester City, David Healy to Sunderland, Ricky Foster to Aberdeen and Kyle Bartley to Arsenal. James Beattie is on loan at Blackpool from Rangers and due to return, but is unlikely to be wanted given the forward's failure to score a goal so far in his Ibrox stint. Balancing both the squad and the books promises to disturb McCoist's own equilibrium. That makes up to ten new players to find, if you are still keeping count. McCoist may have to settle for half that many given the continued cutbacks.

"It's up to myself and the staff to bring new signings in because, if you look at the squad, it's already small and we're going to have the loan players, and maybe other players, leaving so we will certainly need to strengthen," added McCoist. "It won't be easy. We've got to take money off the wage bill for the start of next season which isn't good news for anyone but it's not like it's been thrown at us. We knew it already and can hopefully plan for that. Players might not be able to get the wages here they can elsewhere, but it will be my job to sell the club to them. My philosophy will be quite simple. All the time, you've got to win. We need to win games or I won't be sitting here as manager in the future. Ideally, you win with style, you have players out there the fans are genuinely excited at coming to see, but what's most important is winning.

"If you look at the great players in this club's history, and there have been some wonderfully talented performers, they've probably had more winners here than they have fantastically talented players. That's not a criticism. Anything but, it's a compliment. This club's history is absolutely riddled with winners. Boys that wanted to go out there, do well and win trophies and that's what I want. Sure, we want the fans entertained, but it has to be while winning games of football."

Martin Bain, the Rangers chief executive, confirmed this week that Smith, at whose behest the club finally announced a decision actually made two months ago and agreed in Turkey, will sever all formal ties with the Ibrox club when he departs as manager this summer. That doesn't mean, however, that McCoist will let him get away that easily should it come to still requiring advice from the man who has become his mentor since appointing him as assistant.

"I've no doubt he'll be on the other end of the phone if needed," said McCoist. "It might be from a golf course in Arizona, I don't know, but he'll be told the phone must stay on during his round. I don't care if he's plugged or whatever. Knowing his golf, there's every chance. I think it's safe to say he'd take the call, I've never asked him, but I'm confident he would."