Martin issues transfer promise to Rangers supporters ahead of crucial Champions League showdown

Russell Martin has pledged that Rangers will have the necessary reinforcements in place by the time they face Panathinaikos next month.

The new Ibrox manager will welcome the squad back to Auchenhowie on Monday for pre-season training.

Already without players from last term including Leon Balogun, Vaclav Cerny and Ianis Hagi, Martin has just over four weeks left before his reign begins in earnest with the home leg of the Champions League second qualifying round tie.

While Lyall Cameron has joined from Dundee and moves are afoot to sign Bournemouth right back Max Aarons and Peterborough winger Kwame Poku, there is still a lot of work to do before the squad will match the new man’s expectations.

Confident the necessary additions will be made in due course, Martin said: ‘I think the squad will look different. We will have some players in by then as well.

‘The earlier we can do that the better, so they become ingrained in what we are trying to build culturally and in terms of performance.

‘The players are back in on Monday. That’s the most exciting bit. We will see what the players can do, how we are going to have to adapt and tweak to make it really built-in and ready for us, and then the rest will take care of itself.’

Martin was speaking after the Premiership fixture was announced, handing him an opening trip to Fir Park to face Jens Berthel Askou’s Motherwell.

The pair previously played together at Norwich City as the Canaries won back-to-back promotions under Paul Lambert.

‘We have a big fixture before that [against Panathinaikos] to really focus on, and then we can start really preparing for Motherwell and focusing on that,’ said Martin.

‘But, wherever we go, we want to be ourselves, we are going to try and be the team we want to be all the time. It’s exciting, it’s against an old team-mate of mine in Jens. We played together at Norwich many, many moons ago and we have stayed in touch.

‘We know him, his character and personality and how he will have his team ready, so it will be tough.

‘But they are all tough. We need to focus on ourselves and what we are going to be in the next four or five weeks and making sure we are really ready to attack every challenge, whether it’s the European game before that or the start of the league season.’

Rangers could have landed Brann or Servette in Europe but were pitted against the highest-ranked team in the league path of the draw.

Undaunted by the challenge of facing the Greeks, Martin said: ’A lot of people said to me it’s maybe the toughest draw we could have had, but we have to play against and beat good teams if we want to compete in European football.

‘It gives us something to work towards and look at them, but the focus is going to be on us and making sure we are ready to compete against anyone by the time the game comes around.’