HERE WE GO AGAIN
Levein braced for a month of ‘nonsense’ as he admits Ibrox bid has turned Lafferty’s head
CRAIG LEVEIN last night said he was braced for another month of ‘nonsense’ after admitting Kyle Lafferty’s head has been turned by Rangers’ interest in signing him again.
The Tynecastle boss revealed he had called the Northern Irishman in for a chat before leaving him out of the starting line-up for yesterday’s Betfred Cup visit of Inverness Caley Thistle.
And, while Levein admitted he was pleased by Lafferty’s attitude when he came on in the 5-0 victory over the Highlanders that clinched
a last-16 tie at Dunfermline, he also compared the situation to Rangers’ ultimately futile pursuit of Jamie Walker last season. ‘We had an offer from Rangers, which is not what we are looking for and we just get on with things,’ said Levein. ‘Players are always for sale but certainly not at that price. ‘I’m not going to use any adjectives to describe the offer apart from “disappointing”. ‘What is the distance between their offer and our valuation? I’m not even going to talk about it. That’s how much I think about it (the bid). ‘The good thing is we only have another month left of this nonsense.’ Lafferty spent four years at Ibrox before leaving in 2012. The 30-year-old then had spells at Sion, Palermo, Norwich, Turkish club Caykur Rizespor and Birmingham City. Now Rangers are keen to take him back to Ibrox, and Levein cited last summer’s longrunning saga surrounding another of his players. Hearts kicked out a series of bids from Rangers for attacker Walker, who eventually joined Wigan Athletic in January. ‘I’ve no idea if there will be another offer,’ said Levein. ‘We had the same dealings with Rangers over Jamie Walker and it was a bit “meh”. I kind of expect the same thing again. But it will only last until the end of August (when the transfer window closes). ‘We’ve spoken to Kyle and his head has been turned a little bit but, to his credit, he has been very professional and I was pleased with his performance when he went on. ‘I had a long chat with Kyle about his responsibilities as a professional. Does he want to stay or go? I didn’t actually ask. ‘He is one of the best players in our team and I want him around. ‘I want to use him and play him when I want to. As far as I’m concerned, we are fine and I don’t have any issues at all.’ Steven Gerrard, meanwhile, wants two more Rangers signings before next Sunday’s Premiership kick-off in Aberdeen, although the Ibrox boss remained tight-lipped on the chances of Lafferty being one of them. Asked if he planned to follow up Friday’s unsuccessful bid with an increased offer after yesterday’s 3-0 win over English Championship side Wigan, Gerrard said: ‘Have we made a bid? I have got nothing to say about it, he is a Hearts player. In terms of numbers of bids, I am not aware.’ Admitting a move for Manchester City defender Kean Bryan is now off after also failing with a £3million offer for Millwall’s Jake Cooper, the Rangers boss added: ‘We have loads of targets that we’ve been monitoring. ‘Unfortunately we couldn’t get an agreement with Kean. He wants to keep his options open and we respect that. ‘You can see quite clearly today that we need a centre-back, so that is definitely an area that we are trying to add in.’ Asked if he was hopeful of getting a striker and a defender in before next weekend — or even Thursday’s Europa League second qualifying round second leg tie with Osijek — the Ibrox boss said: ‘I’d love that. I hope it’s tomorrow. I’m in a rush.’ Wantaway Josh Windass was absent from the match-day squad for Wigan, but Gerrard explained: ‘Josh has got a knock on his ankle, so he wasn’t fit.’