Boyd will be Ibrox fall back guy

Jun 22 2008 Gordon Waddell

Kris Is Gers' Safety Net

ONE thing's for sure. If your name is Kenny Miller, Kyle Lafferty or Andrius Velicka, you better have numbers after it before August is out.

If you don't, Kris Boyd will be hovering there like a grand piano being help up by some wet spaghetti.

If those guys aren't doing it week in week out, you can put your mortgage - if you can get one - on the fact he will be.

Scoring is what Boyd does - and it's why Walter Smith wants to have his cake and eat it.

Part of him must believe the guys he has brought in can do the job Boyd does between them - can pick up the slack in the SPL and add something in Europe.

Otherwise why buy three strikers to the tune of six million quid? But part of Smith obviously fears the consequences of selling Boyd to Cardiff.

The risks are huge. How many bosses do you ever hear punting their top scorer? And what happens if his new guys aren't cutting it? Where's his safety net?

Because, let's face it, that's what Boyd is for Rangers. The stats don't lie. In their 25 most important games of last season - 19 in Europe, two domestic cup finals and four Old Firm clashes - Boyd only started THREE.

He didn't even get off the bench once against Celtic, not a ball kicked. On that basis Smith should take £3million for him in a heartbeat.

Yet he was their top scorer by a street on 25.

Two short of Jean-Claude Darcheville and Daniel Cousin put together.

He won them those two domestic cup finals almost single-handed.

And of the 10 SPL sides he did play against the striker scored against eight of them. Only Hearts and Hibs kept a lock on him. Based on those figures would you play him every week?

Damn straight you would.

If you teamed Boyd and Miller up against the guts of the SPL they would get a barrowload.

There's no doubt in anyone's mind about that.

And the SPL is the be all and end all for Rangers in the coming season.

But there's Smith's problem in a nutshell. He doesn't always want to live life flicking between Plans A and B every Saturday and Wednesday.

He wants guys he can rely on at every level Gers play at. And likewise, what striker wants to play every domestic game in a season and never kick a ball in Europe?

Or play all the midweeks but never get a Saturday run to get his confidence and his scoring stats up? Strikers need continuity, self-belief - they need to get in a groove. Boyd's problem, though, is that no matter how much he gets his groove on in Glasgow, he's never going to make the dancefloor on the continent.

And that's not a decision made on a whim by Walter. It's a call based on seeing what he has to offer every day - something none of the Monday morning quarterbacks gets the chance to do.

It's also a decision - as I've said before - that should have Boyd wondering if what Smith is doing is best for HIM.

The player has said he will stick it out, prove his worth, and fair play to him for that combination of belief and loyalty to a club he worked long and hard to get to. But with that scoring record, is being a fall-back really all you want for yourself?

Then again, Boyd's problem is where does he pitch up? What is his level? He's never going to get to one of the big Premiership clubs because, bottom line, they can afford better.

And the strugglers at the other end of England's top drawer?

They won't look at him because they need a guy who will do exactly what Rangers needed in Europe - but couldn't drag from Boyd. Run the doggies, hold it up, chase lost causes - because they will be up against teams with superior technical gifts.

Sound familiar? Smith has already told them Boyd can't do that without opening his mouth.

Which leaves the ambitious top end of the Championship, earning better dough than he's getting at Ibrox, and proving he's worth it. In other words, a club exactly like Cardiff.

It's a big decision and it needs a big man to make it.