IF THE procession of new strikers through the gates of Murray Park over the past few weeks has had any dispiriting effect on Steven Naismith, he hid it brilliantly yesterday as he welcomed the signings of Kenny Miller, Andrius Velicka and Kyle Lafferty as an exciting statement of attacking intent from Rangers manager Walter Smith.
As he continues his rehabilitation from the cruciate ligament injury to his left knee which cut short his debut season with the Ibrox club, Naismith insists the increased competition for forward places in the team can only enhance his incentive to re
turn to action as quickly and effectively as possible.
The 21-year-old is confident that will also be the mindset of his close friend and fellow former Kilmarnock player Kris Boyd, for whom Rangers have rejected an offer in the region of £3 million from Cardiff City.
For while Naismith admires the different qualities of the three new recruits to Smith's first team squad, he believes none of them can provide the guarantee of goals which Boyd – who has astonishingly netted 71 times in 76 starts for Rangers – brings to the table.
"I haven't spoken to Boydy about it yet," said Naismith, "but I don't think he is in any rush to make a decision to leave Rangers. He obviously didn't play as often as he would have liked last season, but I think he wants to stay and fight for his place.
"Personally, I was delighted to hear the club had turned down a bid for him because any team would want to keep a striker who scores goals like Kris does. When you see his name on the team sheet, you just know you are going to score and guys like that don't come cheap.
"I think all three of the new strikers the club have signed are excellent players and the competition for places is a good thing for all of us. I was here when Kyle arrived to sign last week and you are struck right away with how tall he is. It doesn't take a genius to work out he is going to win more than his fair share of headers. He is still a young player, already a full international and obviously has a lot of potential.
"Kenny has been there and done it at the highest level for club and country. He does a lot of running during games and really hassles defences. I would describe Velicka as more of an all-rounder. He is big, strong and has scored a lot of goals in big games in the SPL for Hearts.
"So I think all three can do well for Rangers with their different styles of play, but none of them are like Kris Boyd. I don't think there is another striker who has a record like he does in Scottish football. The manager here knows what he is doing and he has spoken before about the need to rotate strikers. But, who knows, maybe he might change the formation for the new season and have Boydy up there every week."
While Boyd and most of the rest of the Rangers first-team squad return for pre-season training tomorrow, Naismith has been at Murray Park for most of the close season as he recovers from a successful operation on the serious injury he sustained in the Scottish Cup semi-final against St Johnstone on 20 April.
Naismith's knee, weakened by a late tackle from Martin Hardie, crumpled when his studs caught in the uneven Hampden turf to end his involvement in a campaign which, at that stage, still saw Rangers chasing a quadruple of trophies. "It is one of those things that happen in football and I have just had to accept it and move on," he said.
"I watched it again on television and it was the tackle which did the damage. It meant there was no support for my knee when I caught my studs on the pitch.
"I've got no hard feelings about it. I was with Martin Hardie at Kilmarnock and he sent me a text afterwards to say he was sorry. He didn't need to do that, but I appreciated it and it showed he didn't mean it.
"So far, the recovery has gone as well as I could have hoped. The operation was far easier than I expected and I'm getting a lot of support from people at Rangers who have been through similar injuries, like Kevin Thomson and DaMarcus Beasley. The medical knowledge and surgical techniques for cruciate injuries has improved so much since Ian (Durrant] had his injury, so I'm fortunate it's not so serious nowadays.
"I haven't put any time scale on when I play again. The physios could give me a rough idea if I asked them, but I don't want to know. I just know it feels good at the moment."
Meanwhile, Naismith yesterday presented cheques totalling £75,000 on behalf of the Rangers Charity Foundation to their three nominated charities for the 2007-8 season, the British Red Cross, the Cystic Fibrosis Trust and the Craighalbert Centre for children with motor impairments.
The full article contains 866 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
