Paul Murray: Rangers will not be put at risk again

Rangers director Paul Murray insists the Light Blues board will take a smart and sensible approach to life in the Premiership.

Mark Warburton's side clinched the Championship title and promotion to the top flight on Tuesday night with a 1-0 home win over Dumbarton at Ibrox.

According to Murray it marked the end of "four years of misery'' for the Govan club, who re-emerged in the bottom tier of Scottish football in 2012 following a financial meltdown.

After celebrating with the supporters midfielder Andy Halliday spoke of challenging Celtic for the title next season and while Murray is no less ambitious, he outlined the way forward using a four-pronged strategy for a club who last month revealed half-yearly operating losses of £530,000, from a loss of £4.6million in the comparative period.

He said: "First of all let's enjoy last night. It has been a long time coming and we should enjoy our successes and there are still a number of very important games to go this season.

"But it returns us to where we think we should be, the top flight of Scottish football and in many ways it is phase one.

"Phase two is to get the club back to competitive level with a view to winning the Premiership title and we want to do that as soon as we can.

"The board to a man are all Rangers fans first and foremost so we understand that it is not enough for the Rangers fans for the team to go up into the league and simply make up the numbers.

"I am not going to make outlandish promises and say we are going to win the league in the first season but we will obviously try and make the team as competitive as we can as quickly as possible.

"I don't think you can put figures on that. It is not always about throwing money at the situation. First and foremost we don't want to put the club into financial risk.

"We have just been through four years of misery so we are not going to do it again.

"It clearly needs investment as well but we just have to be smart and use our resources sensibly and also prudently but at the same time also recognise that we want to put a team on the park which is competitive. I don't think it is impossible.

"Obviously the benchmark in Scotland is Celtic.

"With a combination of investment, a good management team which we believe we have, a good recruitment structure which we have put in place behind the scenes and also a progressive youth structure, putting that together, there is no reason why we can't compete pretty quickly.

"We know what it means to supporters in terms of being competitive but equally we need to recognise the financial constraints that Scottish football finds itself in.

"As a board and custodians of the club, it is up to us to find that right balance."

Murray believes the club's head of recruitment, Frank McParland, who worked with Warburton at Watford and Brentford and who moved to the Ibrox club in October, will be a hugely important factor in the club's development.

"The key thing now is recruitment," he said. "Frank McParland is the key guy and we have a lot of confidence in him.

"We have a lot of confidence also in Mark, David Weir (assistant) and the rest of the team. We have supported them thus far and we will support them going forward.

"The board members are custodians and it is important that the club is not ever risked again but equally the club has a history of being successful and that has to continue - so we have to balance the two things."