Rangers boss Walter Smith explains Kenny Miller status - BBC Sport

Rangers boss Walter Smith says Kenny Miller's future is now out of the club's hands as the striker ponders offers to leave Ibrox.

Miller was left out of the squad as Rangers knocked Kilmarnock out of the Scottish Cup 3-0 on Monday.

"I didn't feel it was right for Kenny to be involved tonight, there's an awful lot of speculation going on around him" Smith told BBC Scotland.

"So we'll just await a decision from Kenny about what he wants to do."

Smith had just watched his side comfortably beat an on-form Kilmarnock team thanks to goals from lee McCulloch, Kyle Lafferty and Steven Whittaker, to progress to the fifth round of the Scottish Cup.

"I felt we played well tonight. We started the game very well," said Smith.

"Kilmarnock are on a good run of form so, overall, I was please to win what I thought was going to be a very difficult match for us."

However, much of the talk before and after the match surrounded the omission from the squad of top-scorer Miller.

Rangers have accepted an offer of about £700,000 from Birmingham City for the Scotland international, while Fiorentina - who have not yet bid - want to take Miller to Serie A before the end of the transfer window.

"Negotiations are going on between the different parties, and our club only becomes involved at the end of that," said Smith.

"You can say on one hand that you want to keep a player, but if he signs a lucrative pre-contract then he's hardly going to around and risk injury in the second half of the season.

"That's a difficulty that not only the club faces, but the player also."

Smith has stated on a number of occasions that he is unable to buy any new players until he first sells.

And he was confident he would be able to use any proceeds from the sale of Miller, although unsure if the fee in the region of £700,000 would be supplemented in order to prise David Goodwillie from Dundee Untied.

"I think we will [get to spend any transfer fee for Miller] - I would hope so.

"I don't know [about improving any offer for Goodwillie].

"We have to wait and see what happens with Kenny first. We can only have a reaction after that."

Rangers had a bid turned down for Goodwillie on Friday, with united saying the offer was for about half of their valuation of the player, which stands at £1.5m.

However, Rangers have indicated they would be unable to meet that expectation.

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