Murray vows to splash Cuellar cash

RANGERS chairman Sir David Murray has pledged to give every penny from the sale of Carlos Cuellar to manager Walter Smith for new players.

Cuellar completed a £7.8million move to Aston Villa on Tuesday night after activating a clause in his contract, a move which has infuriated fans.

Supporters were assured at a meeting with Murray, Smith and chief executive Martin Bain on Friday that the Spanish defender did not have to be sold to compensate for the club's exit from Europe. Murray is now hoping to soften the blow by sanctioning the release of funds to allow Smith to strengthen his squad before the transfer deadline.

Cardiff centre-half Glenn Loovens is believed to be top of the wanted list, although reports have claimed that Celtic have also launched a bid to sign the Dutchman. Rangers could now resurrect their interest in Fulham midfielder Steven Davis, who enjoyed a successful loan spell at Ibrox last season.

Murray said: "Reports I told the Rangers Supporters Assembly at a private meeting last Friday that all monies from sales would be returned to the manager are accurate. That's what will happen."

Meanwhile, DaMarcus Beasley could return to the Rangers side for Saturday's clash with Hearts at Ibrox. The American winger has been out of action for most of the summer with a hamstring injury sustained in pre-season. The latest setback was a blow for a player who spent the majority of last term on the sidelines with knee ligament damage. But Smith has hinted Beasley could be involved in this weekend's match after being an unused substitute at Falkirk last week.

Smith said: "Coming back from the hamstring injury, you are always wary when a player goes out into his first match, but with another week's training under his belt we would hope that DaMarcus would be ready to play on Saturday. Considering he missed most of last season, we would hope that he would be injury-free now.

"You could see his worth to the team when he came back in for the (Scottish] Cup final last season and with our other wider players – Chris Burke and Stevie Naismith – out at the moment he gives us a good option."

David Weir is back from suspension and Kenny Miller is set to return after a thigh injury saw him sit out the win at Falkirk. Kevin Thomson hobbled out of the match with a similar injury but should also feature at the weekend.

Smith said: "We will have some decisions to make for Saturday. Davie is available again and I believe Kenny and Kevin will both be fine. Madjid Bougherra came in last weekend and did very well. Kirk Broadfoot has been playing centre-half since pre-season started, more or less, and he has been doing well too. I think it's his best position".

Former Hearts striker Andrius Velicka is determined to fire Rangers to a win against his old club.

He said: "For me, playing in this match would be special and if I can score that will also be nice – but only if we win. I know a lot of people from my time at Hearts and enjoyed playing there. I had a good relationship with the fans and also managed to score quite a lot of goals, some against Celtic and Rangers. But this is now in the past and all I want to do is score goals for Rangers and help us win games.

"I was very happy to score my first goal at Falkirk last Saturday but the main thing was to get three points and make a good start to the season. We needed that after what happened in Lithuania last Tuesday. We knew we had to turn things around so winning the game was the most important thing."

The return to his homeland allowed Velicka to renew his acquaintance with Vladimir Romanov, the Hearts majority shareholder, whose bank is also the main sponsor of Kaunas.

Romanov has had an uneasy relationship with the Old Firm in the past – but Velicka insists his dream move to Rangers probably would never have happened had it not been for the eccentric businessman.

He said: "I have to thank Mr Romanov in many ways because he trusted me and he put faith in me when I was at Kaunas. I had to work hard to get my chance to go to Hearts but, when I went there, I proved to everyone what I could do. Now I am at Rangers and I probably wouldn't be here if it was not for the opportunity Mr Romanov gave to me."