Davie’s Bougherra Wish

Madjid Bougherra will be back for Rangers at Inverness, and Davie Weir hopes Algerian defender is here for the long haul. 

• Bougherra has missed the last three matches with a thigh strain but is fit to return to partner Weir at the Caledonian Stadium.
• Today it has been reported that Newcastle United are ready to make a bid for the centre back, who joined Rangers from Charlton last summer, but Walter Smith has said the that no inquiries have been made.
• Weir and Bougherra have formed a good partnership in the centre of defence and Weir hopes it can continue for the rest of his campaign.
• He said: “Of course, I would love Madjid to stay. He has done very well for us and we have missed him in the last few weeks.”
• Manager Smith made it clear that he does not want to lose any of his regular starters and is only interested in selling players who are on the periphery of his squad.
• However, he tempered that by pointing out that the sale of Alan Hutton to Tottenham was sanctioned this time last year because the fee of around $9 million was something Rangers could not turn down.
• He said: “ As I have said before we have 28 players in the squad and there are a number who have not been involved regularly and clearly that is going to be a source of frustration.
• “We would want to keep the group who are involved week in, week out”.
• “However, we were in a situation last year with Alan Hutton in that we wanted to keep him but the bid was such that we had to take it so you can never say that this won’t happen again”.