Rangers chief tells fans to be patient

Scottish champions Rangers have sent out an assurance to their fans that new players will be brought in before next month’s start of the season.

The Glasgow giants have been conspicuously absent from the transfer market since clinching the league title in May, amid ongoing concerns over the dire state of the club finances.

But chief executive Martin Bain has revealed that three new players are being sought and he urged fans to be patient following this summer’s Ibrox exodus.

Danny Wilson became the sixth member of the Light Blues’ title-winning squad to leave the club when he signed a three-year deal with Liverpool yesterday.

Manager Walter Smith this week took just 13 senior players on his side’s pre-season tour of Australia and further departures are possible before the new campaign begins.

But Bain has backed Smith to work his magic to offset the loss of the likes of Kris Boyd, Kevin Thomson and Nacho Novo and deliver a hat-trick of league titles.

Bain told the Daily Record: “As things stand right now, we need three new players – guys of a decent standard.

“At the moment, we have a couple on the radar, players we are looking at. It’s two at the moment but by the end of the transfer window, I hope to have signed three.”

Debt-laden Rangers are currently operating under a business plan agreed with major creditors Lloyds Bank, which meant there were always going to be departures from the club this summer.

Bain added: “We both know the players we want to go for. We were also well aware that this current situation was inevitable.

“It is about bringing cash in now to make the pot as big as we can. We don’t want to end up selling people at the end of the window and then not have time to spend the cash that generates.

“We know it looks bad to be going to Australia with just 13 players but if the fans have faith we will sort this out.

“No, we won’t have tens of millions of pounds to spend but we are doing exactly what needs to be done.”