RANGERS coach Dick Advocaat last night voiced his displeasure over Coventry City manager Gordon Strachan's decision to go public with details of transfer talks between the clubs.
Strachan had felt he had all but signed and sealed a deal to bring German Jorg Albertz to Highfield Road after an earlier #4m offer for Neil McCann had been rejected.
However, Advocaat made it clear that both men were very much part of his plans for the future and had held meetings with them to tell them that.
Advocaat emphasised the fact he would be strongly against moving on either of the players, which flies in the face of comments from Strachan that suggested discussions over Albertz were at a late stage.
Last night, the Rangers manager went out of his way to make it clear he did not want either player to leave Ibrox.
''Both players are very much in my plans,'' said Advocaat, who also revealed he will be without Craig Moore for at least for another two months after he underwent a knee operation yesterday.
''It's quite simple in that we get so many requests for players and if the right offer comes in we will have to listen, but still the player decides what is going to happen as he has the final word.''
The way that Strachan chose to make public his criticism of the way Rangers handled the situation concerned Advocaat, who said: ''I don't think that is the kind of way you handle these kind of things, but probably he is very disappointed.
''From our point of view, Neil knows how I feel about him, and Jorg as well, and I told them that. For example, we sold Jonatan Johansson for #3.75m, so how can you just ask just #4m for Jorg Albertz?''
Away from the talk over the future of Albertz and McCann, Advocaat is still on the lookout for a new striker, but so far his search has been fruitless.
He has been encouraged by the fact that Michael Mols was back training and kicking the ball on grass after his second operation on his injured right knee, but clearly he does not want to gamble too early with his fitness.
''We only have Kenny Miller who has just arrived, Billy Dodds as well, but we don't have too many central strikers, so we need another one because we still don't know how it will go with Mols,'' said the Rangers coach.
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