xxxxxxxxx TEAM NEWS

WHEN Jim Jefferies pulled a quiet, unassuming young forward aside during a Kilmarnock reserve match in 2003, it was because he’d felt that special feeling again amid the drizzle of an autumn afternoon.

It’s the feeling football managers always get when they happen across a previously unrecognised player at their club and suddenly see something else. Something inspiring.

That was the case when Jefferies, who celebrates his 30th anniversary in club management this year, first watched Everton target Steven Naismith – and the young man went on to be every bit as good as Jefferies hoped.

The Blues are leading the nine-club chase for Naismith’s signature after he decided to become a free agent and oppose his contract being transferred from the wreck of the former Glasgow Rangers to Charles Greens’ new company.

And 61-year-old Jefferies – who also first spotted Everton hero David Weir – suspects the Toffees are in a prime position to seal a deal for the man once dubbed ‘Kid Goals’.

“He would be a really good signing for Everton,” says the current Dunfermline Athletic boss. “I think with Davie (Weir) and Jelavic there they’ll be saying to him ‘Come here’, and you’ve got a good chance.

“The fans at Goodison would love him and he’d be terrific value with no transfer fee.”

Dunfermline were relegated from the Scottish Premier League last term, but Jefferies has seen enough of his former protegee since selling him to Rangers in 2007 to know he found his perfect attacking companion in Nikica Jelavic.

That combination yielded 56 goals in less than a season and a half, and a third successive title for Rangers in 2011 – and still prompts the Croatian to privately acknowledge that Naismith has been the best attacker he has played alongside so far.

“I think the partnership he struck up with Jelavic would be a big factor for him when he’s thinking where to go next.

“They were just on the same wavelength and seemed to click instantly at Ibrox. Sometimes it just happens fortuitously like that.

“Of course I’m sure they worked hard on the training ground on it too but it was a real plus for Rangers and opponents found the pair hard to handle. They had a great chemistry on the pitch and Steven seemed to have a knack of finding Jelavic which always led to goals.

“Obviously Jelavic has proved he can do it in England and Naisy will do the same – don’t worry about that.”

Naismith is the kind of bright, dynamic deep-lying forward that is used to lethal effect increasingly in modern football, with examples in many of Euro 2012’s top teams, and Jefferies believes he has the ability to fit into any system.

“He was just a young boy when we spotted him playing for the reserves but you could see it instantly then,” he recalls.

“I thought it wouldn’t be long before he was in my first team and it wasn’t.

“He was one of those boys who comes along every now and again where your gut feeling tells you he will go all the way.

“He established himself quickly and for three or four years he helped us do well, we got to a league cup final and finished fifth with a really good side.

“The good thing about Naisy is he is a quality team player as well as someone with individual ability.

“He won’t complain and he just used to play anywhere you'd ask him to, while at the same time he competes hard on the pitch and can look after himself.”

The only question mark over the 25-year-old remains the degree to which two serious knee cruciate ligament injuries have diminished his vitality, but Jefferies doubts they will have taken their toll too heavily.

“He was a bit unlucky because he hadn’t been at Rangers an awfully long time when he suffered his first injury and it caused him to miss over a year. But he has such determination and will to win that always shone through.

“He’s train twice as hard to get fit and has come back stronger each time.

“Even after that early injury the Rangers fans had seen enough to know he was special. They could see it in him and he won them over, just like he won over (Scotland manager) Craig Levein. “He has a first class attitude more than anything, and any defender will tell you he’s a handful.”