Murray: First team is the priority

Rangers chairman Paul Murray insists the new regime in charge at Ibrox will always put the team first.

Murray has been placed in charge of the club's rebuilding job while Dave King proves he is fit and proper.

His new board - who swept to power after forcing out David Somers, James Easdale, Derek Llambias and Barry Leach earlier this month - have already secured a £1.5million loan from Three Bears investors Douglas Park, George Taylor and George Letham.

That will allow them to stabilise Rangers while they look at ways of raising fresh cash.

But Murray insists he and fellow directors Park, John Gilligan and John Bennett have already started to implement plans for next season which have the success of the club's playing staff paramount in their thoughts.

He told RangersTV: "With any plan you have to separate it into short, medium and long-term.

"The short-term has been about stabilising the club's finances and we did that on Monday with the announcement of the £1.5million loan and there will be further investment in the club in the short-term as well.

"We are currently piecing through the figures so we understand exactly what the club's financial obligations are.

"What is more important is the medium to long-term and we have already started that process looking at the plans for next season and even beyond next season.

"This is a football club and the most important thing is what happens on the pitch, the first team drives everything in the club.

"If they are playing well and are successful then that drives all the other commercial activity. So really the focus has to be investing to support the first team.

"We did say what the level of investment would probably be and we agree with Graham Wallace when he said there would probably have to be £20million put in over three years.

"We are still working through timescales for our investment and it will take that amount of money to return the club to a competitive level in the Premiership and in Europe.

"With regard to the phasing of that investment you have to separate it into short, medium and long-term investment and that is what we're doing.

"To respect the processes of the SFA, Dave will not be investing until we have him cleared by the SFA.

"I think one of the problems that Sports Direct and Mike Ashley had is that they went ahead and actually made investments when they hadn't had a pre-clearance from the SFA - we don't want to get into that position again.

"We want to be responsible and respectful of their processes and work with the SFA to hopefully clear the board member that we have here and that will enable us to move forward.''

Rangers have burned through more than £70million in the last three years but interim chairman Murray insists the club will not throw more cash at the problem simply for the sake of it.

"I think that most supporters would be realistic and will know that we will have to spend and invest this money wisely,'' he said.

"There is no point in throwing money at every problem and trying to deal with it. We have to try and be smart, thoughtful and be prudent with the club's interests and that takes time.

"We have to do it properly and from where I sit at the moment, that number is sufficient to get the club back to that level.''