Reyna prefers Rangers to a move south

Claudio Reyna, Rangers' American midfielder, is ready to pledge his future to the Ibrox club despite being linked with a move to Aston Villa.

The United States international had admitted during the summer that a move to the English Premiership was appealing. But the 28-year-old, who played in his country's World Cup qualifying win over Jamaica last weekend, seems to have had a change of heart and now says he wants to end his career at Ibrox.

"Definitely, I want to stay," said Reyna. "But I currently don't have a new contract. I have been talking with the club, but nothing has been finalised. I would be very happy to stay with Rangers and to finish my career there.

"Rangers have been good to me and my family and we like Scotland. Now that I am back in Glasgow we can sort the whole thing out."

Reyna's future at Rangers looked uncertain after reports that the Villa manager, John Gregory, was interested in him. He has been a big success in Scotland since moving from Wolfsburg for just £1m, and he is not too concerned about the recent speculation.

"I know there have been talks," Reyna said. "But I don't even know between whom. I'll find that out now that I'm back in Glasgow. I understand Villa have expressed some interest in me but at what level I don't know."

The Rangers chairman, David Murray, said that no official approach had been made and hopes to re-open contractual talks with Reyna in the next few days.

The Dundee midfielder Georgi Nemsadze has been ruled out for three months with a knee injury. The Georgian international has been struggling with the injury over the past three weeks and has now been advised that an operation will be required.

The news is another major blow to the Dundee player-manager, Ivano Bonetti, who saw his side crash out of the CIS Insurance Cup at First Division Ross County on Tuesday night.

"Georgi has been struggling with injury but our intention had been to allow him to keep on playing until we knew the full extent of the problem," Bonetti said. "But it now looks like he'll have to go through an operation to get his knee cleaned up. It's too early to say how long he'll be out but I would expect him to be sidelined for at least three months."

However the striker Juan Sara has offered Bonetti some respite with the news that he could return to the side after a knee injury for the game at Dunfermline on Saturday.

The Motherwell chief executive, Pat Nevin, yesterday admitted the task of finding the right man for the Fir Park manager's job is a "tough" one.

It has been over a fortnight since Billy Davies paid the price for his side's disappointing start to the new Premier League campaign. While St Johnstone have recently appointed Billy Stark as their new manager, Nevin has been whittling down the list of candidates for the job from 42 to a shortlist of seven – including the caretaker-managers John Philliben and Miodrag Krivokapic – but he admits the task of finding Davies' successor is no easier.

"These decisions are always tough and you never know if it's the right decision until two years down the line,"Nevin said. "So on that basis we need to get it right and it's vitally important that we make the right decision. One day we think the decision is going to be imminent and then other days it's not, but we're certainly working on it."

Nevin was unable to give any indication as when the announcement would be made. "I've said all along that we've drawn up a shortlist and now I need to talk to the board, but it's not really any closer," he said.