The Rangers exodus looks set to begin with the departure of Jean-Claude Darcheville to Valenciennes. The Herald understands Steven Smith will follow with an initial six-month loan move to the Coca-Cola Championship.
Clearing out up to 10 players would give Walter Smith the latitude to bring in a central defender to shore up his defence. It is estimated Rangers are paying around £100,000 per week in wages to players who are not regularly involved in the first team, a waste of resources that the chairman, Sir David Murray, will no longer permit.
Last night, the Spartak Moscow centre-back, Martin Stranzl, became the latest to be linked with a January move as a long-term replacement for the 38-year-old David Weir, but any arrival will depend on the scale of departures. Rangers are not in a position to offer severance payments to terminate contracts.
Darcheville, who will be allowed to leave on a free transfer, visited the French Ligue 1 side's training academy and met the club directors on Tuesday.
He is one of the highest earners at Ibrox, having doubled his salary to a reputed £20,000 per week when he left Bordeaux on a Bosman in the summer of 2007. Yet he has scored only once in 10 appearances this season, in the 2-0 win against Aberdeen at Ibrox last month.
A deal could be agreed in the next 24 hours and Francis Decourriere, the Valenciennes president, was excited at the prospect of Darcheville's arrival. "It would be a great reinforcement for us," he said. "I have a lot of hope for this and am enthusiastic about the idea of him signing."
Rangers have been linked with a move for Tonel, the Sporting Lisbon centre-back, but the Portuguese club have placed a prohibitive £2.3m valuation on the defender, who would also command wages in the region of £25,000.
A move for Stranzl, once on Celtic's radar, is more realistic. The 6ft 3in Austrian internationalist would cost about £1m and his agent, Thomas Boehm, said his client is receptive, although Fulham, West Ham United and Everton have also expressed interest.
"Martin has said before that he is keen to play for one of the top clubs in England and Scotland and he would be keen on Rangers," said Boehme. "His goal is to play in the UK. He has had teams looking at him for many years now as he is an experienced international who has all the attributes for the British game."
Rangers are adamant that the arrival of a centre-back will not put Madjid Bougherra's future in doubt. Rumours persist that the club would be prepared to cash in on the Algerian as they did with Carlos Cuellar. Marseille are expected to make an offer for him, but Rangers are keen to reinforce their defence.
Steven Smith is expected to end a miserable two years by reviving his career in the Coca-Cola Championship. The Herald understands three clubs are keen to take the 23-year-old on loan until the end of the season and a decision could be made by the end of the week. Smith has played only once in nearly two years, suffering from a serious pelvic problem and, more recently, undergoing a hernia operation. Rangers have agreed to let him leave on loan in the hope he can re-establish his previous form.
Rangers will also be open to offers for Brahim Hemdani, Charlie Adam, Graeme Smith, Chris Burke, DaMarcus Beasley, Lee McCulloch and Christian Dailly.
Click here to comment on this story...
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