Source: Team_Talk
Smith: Boyd yet to make decision
Rangers manager Walter Smith believes Kris Boyd has yet to reach a decision over where his future lies.[LNB] Reports this week suggested the 26-year-old striker was edging closer to sealing a move to Birmingham when his contract with the Scottish champions expires at the end of the season.[LNB]Smith says he is happy to wait until the summer to find out whether their top goalscorer plans to remain at Ibrox or not.[LNB]And he insists the focus for now should be on retaining the Scottish Premier League title instead.[LNB]He said: "I spoke to Kris earlier in the season and he is going to make his decision at the end of the season.[LNB]"We respect that. That's what he has to do and it's an important stage of his career.[LNB]"It's also an important stage of the league season as well so we would hope to get back to some kind of form from everyone's point of view.[LNB]"We've succeeded as a team over the last few seasons and we are striving to be successful as a team again so it's not just down to any one individual player."[LNB]As well as Boyd, Rangers are also keen to secure a number of their younger players on long-term deals, with teenager John Fleck recently agreeing a new contract.[LNB]Smith had expected fellow 18-year-old Danny Wilson to follow suit this week but revealed that talks between the player's representatives and chief executive Martin Bain had yet to reach a conclusion.[LNB]He said: "Martin deals with all that but, as far as I'm aware, they haven't reached agreement so far.[LNB]"Martin has been trying to organise that for a few weeks now.[LNB]"Contractual things are important things and they take a bit of time."[LNB]At the other end of the age scale, skipper David Weir became the oldest ever player to play for Rangers when he faced St Johnstone earlier in the week 41 days short of his 40th birthday.[LNB]Smith said: "He has been fantastic since he came to us.[LNB]"His contribution to the success we have achieved so far in that period has been fantastic.[LNB]"I've been very lucky to work with a lot of good professionals and he is certainly pushing them all to be named the best that I've worked with.[LNB]"He is fantastic in the way he approaches his football and he is a decent lad to boot.[LNB]"We have an agreement where I speak to him at the end of every season and we see how each of us feels.[LNB]"I'll do that again this year but you always get the impression, if everything is going okay, he could do another year.[LNB]"But we will just have to wait and see."[LNB]Weir's milestone on Wednesday night was overshadowed by a shock 4-1 defeat in Perth.[LNB]And Smith claims last year's title race was easier for Rangers when they were chasing Celtic rather than this time around when they lead the pack by 10 points.[LNB]"Last season it was dead easy because we were behind Celtic and we had to catch up," he said.[LNB]"This season is more difficult because we have a gap there and we had everyone telling us the championship was wrapped up.[LNB]"It's maybe natural, when the players reach the stage where everybody is telling them they've won the championship, that they take that as read and maybe relax a little.[LNB]"It only takes a little drop to be a dangerous thing and we saw that the other night when we weren't at our best and we lost deservedly.[LNB]"We were really disappointed but we have to be careful not to over-analyse a defeat like that.[LNB]"We are at home against Hamilton tomorrow and we just have to try and get back on track again."
