Mccoist Had A Heart-to-heart Chat With Jelavic

[Broxi1872 183]

NIKICA JELAVIC’S Rangers future was secured when he pledged his allegiance to boss Ally McCoist during a long-distance heart-to-heart yesterday.

Record Sport can reveal the Croatian striker, who is back in Zagreb on international duty, held a no-holds-barred conversation with rookie boss McCoist over the phone at around 3pm on a frantic final day of the transfer market.

McCoist was concerned his talismanic hitman might have been seduced by the idea of a lucrative move OUT of Ibrox after learning the SPL champs had booted out a £6.5million bid from big spenders Leicester City on Tuesday.

As McCoist braced himself for in increased offer from Foxes’ boss Sven-Goran Eriksson ahead of last night’s deadline, he picked up the phone to discover if Jelavic’s heart is still in it.

And the answer he received helped him heave a huge sigh of relief, after also learning that Aston Villa boss Alex McLeish had decided not to follow up on an official approach for another key man, Steve Davis.

McCoist confirmed: “Yes, I had a conversation with Nikica this afternoon and, while I won’t go into details about a private discussion, I don’t mind telling you that I heard everything I wanted to hear from him.

“You do worry that players heads can be turned in situations such as this but there is no doubt in my mind that Nikica Jelavic wants to be a Rangers player.

“Needless to say I’m delighted to still have him because he is vital to what we are trying to achieve.”

McCoist, however, now heads into a title battle with rivals Celtic without securing permanent deals for any of the names on his summer list of priority targets.

Despite his best efforts he was unable to put a dent in the "£15million warchest" which had been promised to him by the club’s new owner Craig Whyte.

And yet it could have been much worse for the Gers boss had Davis and Jelavic – who was the subject of a late £9million bid from an unnamed club last night – been stolen from him at the eleventh hour.

While Leicester boss Eriksson moved instead for Everton striker Jermaine Beckford, McLeish also backed off.

The Villa gaffer snapped up ex-Rangers full-back Alan Hutton on a permanent deal and his Spurs team-mate Jermaine Jenas on loan from White Hart Lane.

McLeish then confirmed to Record Sport he decided against angering his old club with a hostile last-ditch offer for star man Davis.

He said: “It’s true we made an approach for Steven Davis. We were told the player was not for sale so I concentrated on going after other targets.”

[Nicolas Cage 31]

Hopefully Jelavic will perform like he did last season because frankly this season, he's been poor; he's missed numerous chances and his work rate hasn't been great. He's still a classy guy though and he'll deliver the goods. It would also help if we started playing football properly instead of hoofing the ball at him from anywhere on the park.

[TravelingWilBEARy 4,319]

Super Ally does it again.

[Marco Negri's Beard 1,423]

'Inevitable' and all that jazz. Well in Super

[Mikhailichenko 90]

"15 million warchest" They put it in quotes to imply Ally was promised this by Whyte. The only time I have seen this phrase used is by the mhedia themselves.

I can see it in the DR news room, Jhourno 1: How can we put a negative spin on this positive story? Jhourno 2: I know, lets drop the old '£15m warchest that Ally was promised', but in reality wasnt promised, chestnut in there. Jhourno 1: Great idea that'll take the shine off it.

[GlasgowsBlue 329]

Glad to hear that the big man wants to stay and play for the Rangers, and after the international break hopefully he will pick up his form from last season

[hooooootchy 405]

Hopefully now the windows shut and the specualtion about his future will die , Jelavic will get back to the player we know he can be and fire us to 4IAR

[KingKirk 25,811]

It worries me a heart to heart has taken place tbh. big Jela still has 3years to run on his deal. so whats the need for it?

[maxiblue 18]

Hopefully now the windows shut and the specualtion about his future will die , Jelavic will get back to the player we know he can be and fire us to 4IAR

starting against scumdee hibs...

[Getstiffed 8,863]

"15 million warchest" They put it in quotes to imply Ally was promised this by Whyte. The only time I have seen this phrase used is by the mhedia themselves.

I can see it in the DR news room, Jhourno 1: How can we put a negative spin on this positive story? Jhourno 2: I know, lets drop the old '£15m warchest that Ally was promised', but in reality wasnt promised, chestnut in there. Jhourno 1: Great idea that'll take the shine off it.

The whole war chest thing smacked of timmy mischief to me.

Get us all crowing about being flush then watch us scramble around when it doesnt materialise.

People took the headline as fact and didnt bother reading what Mr Whyte actually said.

It happens all the time: they link us to player they know we will never in a million years get, then turn round and make out it was the supporters that said it would happen.

[caseyjones 3,009]

Oh well, that's alright then.

[Colonel Mustard 380]

I remember Tosh McKinlay resigning from his job after erroneously stating that celtic had a £15m war chest.

The journos who have done the same thing with Rangers should follow suit.