Ibrox needs ‘better quality’

RANGERS HAVE to return to pre-administration levels on the field if they are to meet the club’s aim of winning the Scottish Premiership in three years, according to defender Lee Wallace.

Amid chief executive Graham Wallace’s shock business review, which revealed he troubled I b rox club had “mismanaged” about £70 million in less than two years, was a wish list that included being the best team in Scotland by 2016-17.

Wallace, 26, joined the Light Blues from Hearts in July 2011, but a year later found himself one of the few top players remaining as Steven Naismith, Steven Davis and Steven Whittaker led an exodus of players after the club became insolvent and after they had surrendered the title to rivals Celtic and been deducted 10 points for entering administration.

Rangers re-emerged at the bottom tier of Scottish football with an almost unrecognisable squad, b ut tw o successive title wins have taken them into the Championship next season, one step away from top flight where a strong Celtic will be waiting.

When asked if boardroom expectations were realistic, Wallace, named PFA Scotland League One player of the year at an awards ceremony in Glasgow on Sunday night, said: “I think you have to have the ambition, but that is when we will need the help in.

“We are going to need a few more bodies to be able to do that. You have to remember the standards that we had in the team when I first came, the quality of player that we had.

“Obviously we missed out then because of the deduction and because everything had started with administration.

“So you have to look back to the Rangers of that era and you obviously have to look to try to get to that as closely as possible. But you certainly have to target the next three, four, five years to try to go and compete and that’s what I want to be part of.”