WALTER Smith barely permitted himself even the merest glance at the Uefa Cup as he arrived at the City of Manchester Stadium yesterday. The Rangers manager is not a superstitious man, but he is an endlessly practical one.
So unless his players can deliver him one more sterling display to conclude their epic European campaign with victory over Zenit St Petersburg tonight, Smith will see no need to acquaint himself personally with the striking piece of silverware which
sat inches away from him as he conducted his media duties on the eve of the final.
As he attempts to take it back to Ibrox, Smith will remain as true to his own managerial methods as the time-honoured craftsmen in the Bertoni workshops in Milan which created the 15 kilogramme trophy for Uefa back in 1971, just a year before Rangers won their first and, thus far, only European prize.
The 'anti-football' jibes aimed at his team throughout this extraordinary season, which sees them still in with a chance of winning four trophies, were never likely to deflect Smith from the prosaic approach he has adopted in order to revive a club who were in dire straits when he returned to them almost 18 months ago.
While the one-off nature of tonight's showpiece occasion against Russian champions Zenit may see Smith allow minor alterations to the mindset which his players have embraced so readily, he is not about to abandon the safety first strategy which has engineered their absorbing, if not always thrilling progress to the final.
"It would obviously be foolish for us to go away from a format which has been successful for us in Europe this season," said Smith. "The circumstances of the final could dictate things, whether we will approach it slightly differently from some of our away games in Europe.
"It is different in a two-legged contest. For example, against Panathinaikos in Athens in our first Uefa Cup tie, even after we went 1-0 down we could afford to retain the same system of play for another half hour or so before we had to push forward a bit more for a goal.
"We don't have the away goal factor in the final, though, so at different stages of the game there will be an onus to go and try to win it. But we will do so from what has been a successful base for us."
That is likely to mean a recall to the starting line-up for Brahim Hemdani, left out of the three SPL games Rangers have played since their dramatic Uefa Cup semi-final success against Fiorentina in Florence two weeks ago.
The Algerian will probably join Kevin Thomson in the holding midfield positions in Smith's favoured 4-2-3-1 formation, so long as the former Hibs captain recovers from the foot injury which forced him to limp out of their 3-1 defeat of Dundee United on Saturday.
The most intriguing aspect of Smith's team selection is likely to be who fills the role on the left of the three more advanced midfielders alongside Barry Ferguson and Steven Davis. Steven Whittaker and Nacho Novo are both contenders, but Smith could also recall Lee McCulloch after a four-week injury absence to add a physical presence.
If his players are as composed and laid-back as Smith was yesterday, then there is little chance of them becoming overawed by the size of the occasion in front of them tonight.
"There's no doubt the most stressful matches for us this season have been the qualification games for the Champions League back in July and August," said Smith.
"Once you get to this stage, most of the players seem quite relaxed about it. They are looking forward to the game and that's how it should be. I don't see any signs of stress or strain.
"It has sunk in now that we are in the final and we are really looking forward to it. It would be a big thing for any team to win the Uefa Cup, when you look back at the excellent quality of the sides who have won it in recent years. Getting to a European final isn't something that happens to Scottish clubs very often, so the players have already put themselves in the history books by getting here.
"Once you get here, though, you have to do your utmost to make sure you win it. The players have handled themselves well in many difficult circumstances in Europe this season and they have taken a confidence from that."
Smith says he has no specially prepared pre-match address to deliver to his team before kick-off tonight, trusting instead that the magnitude of their efforts to reach the final have already instilled an instinctive sense of purpose and inspiration.
"I don't think a manager has to do that," he said. "The boys have worked very hard over 18 games to get here, so if they needed extra motivation from me now, then I would have been wasting my time on previous occasions.
"We can go into the final knowing we have surprised a lot of people, even ourselves sometimes, with a lot of the results we have achieved this season. Now we need to produce one more.
"As far as criticism of our style of play goes, that would be poor motivation for any team to use, so it's not a case of trying to prove anyone wrong. I always try to motivate my own team into just having a pride in winning."
Given the almost fated nature of Rangers' march to the final, it is not difficult to imagine the ends justifying the means for Smith once more.
The full article contains 970 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
