GORDON SMITH admits Mark Warburton will have to shop wisely as he bids to overhaul his Rangers squad this summer.

The new Light Blues boss has a major rebuilding job on his hands in the coming weeks alongside assistant David Weir.

The former Brentford management duo have inherited a threadbare squad at Ibrox and have little time to get their targets into the club as the countdown continues to the first competitive match of the campaign on July 25.

With the likes of Lee McCulloch, Ian Black, Jon Daly and Kris Boyd having left at the end of their contracts, there is plenty of scope for Warburton to make his mark on the first team pool.

And former Gers striker and Director of Football Smith knows it will take a lot of hard work for Warburton and Weir to get their plans in place for the big kick-off.

He said: “They lost about 11 players, players who were round about the first team, and not only playing but round about the squad, so he does have to replace them.

“He has to prioritise right throughout the team. I think what he’s looking for will be some experienced players who can actually fill in the role and give advice and help and run the team.

“So you’re looking at your core of your team through the centre-back positions, centre midfield and striker, and then you’re looking to bring in good young players.

“He will have a problem because at this stage of the season he’ll be looking at the players who are obviously on a Bosman who are free agents, but a lot of the good ones will be picked up already, will have already done their deals, so he really has to look for people who are out of contract in order to fill some of the positions.

"He may have to look at a few loan deals, and he was quite successful when he did that before at Brentford, he brought in some players from bigger clubs on loans, so he may have to go down that road, too.”