THEY are training how they will play and will soon have a chance to play how they have trained.

The first match of the Mark Warburton era will not take place in front of the Ibrox crowd, nor will it even take place in Scotland.

But it will give the new Rangers manager, already aware of where his side need to be sooner rather than later, an insight into where they are at present.

Rangers will head south this week for a couple of days at the Tottenham Hotspur Training Centre and will have their first run out of the summer against a Spurs outfit on Friday.

Another bounce game will be played next week before Burnley visit Ibrox just days before the Petrofac Training Cup clash with Hibernian on July 25.

Time is of the essence for Warburton and assistant David Weir as they look to get their message across to a squad that failed so miserably last season as they missed out on promotion to the Premiership.

Danny Wilson, Rob Kiernan and Wes Foderingham have joined so far, while a handful of players also remain with the squad and several more are on Warburton’s wishlist.

The recruitment of new stars will be crucial in the coming weeks, but it is on the training ground where Warburton and Weir will look to make their mark.

Fans will get their first glimpse of the newly-styled Rangers side later this month, and Weir is confident it will be a positive impression as the Light Blues continue to put in the hours and strive for success.

“Fitness is a big factor for us,” he said. “I can’t comment on last season, because I genuinely didn’t see a lot of Rangers games.

“All I can say is that fitness is fundamental to playing football in the modern age. All of our training sessions are intense.

“They are measured with set periods of time assigned to getting players to the fitness level we believe is needed.

“We have done that in the past couple of years with similar methods at Brentford and have decent results.

“We are pretty sure that what we do works. We scored a lot of late goals and keeping players on the pitch in good condition is a big part of that.

“A dynamic style of play is ideally what we want. We have youth and energy in the squad and people want to see effort.

“Rangers fans are renowned for wanting desire and energy from their team. We need to have players who are capable of producing that week in, week out.”

Having inherited a threadbare squad at Murray Park, Warburton and Weir had virtually a blank canvas upon which to work this summer.

The progress in terms of the rebuilding work has been steady thus far, but soon their endeavours on the training ground will come into focus when the action starts once again.

Of the players that remain from last season, almost all have a point to prove in the coming months as they prepare for a fresh start.

And Weir has been encouraged by the early signs as he and Warburton have got down to work and hit the ground running.

He said: “The boys have been great, they genuinely have. They’ve worked very hard and they’ve bought into the ideas we’ve been trying to put across and the way we want to work.

“I couldn’t fault the players because their effort and level of football has been first class. It’s been full on since we started.

“The players are all new to us as well and we’re getting to know them, too.

“We’re trying to strengthen the squad as well as bring in new players so we’re ready for the start of the season.

“Fundamentally, we’ve never worked with these players despite knowing some of them and, with Mark and I coming in, it’s about giving everyone a fair trial. It’s a fresh start and that’s a good thing for us.

“There have been no disappointments with regards to the players because everything we’ve asked them to do they’ve done. They’ve done it with a smile on their face.”

It is not just on the first-team squad that Warburton and Weir have made their mark in recent days as they have begun the significant task of overhauling Rangers’ football outlook and performance.

Coach Gordon Durie and Head of Athletic Performance Jim Henry left the club this week as the Murray Park backroom staff was re-shaped for the first time.

It will take time for Rangers to find the ideal set-up on and off the park, but Weir is keen to make changes where and when necessary.

“We have to put our own stamp on it,” he said. “We have to work within our own parameters.

“Gordon has been a great servant to Rangers, but it was just a case of his role coming under what Mark and myself do.

“We do the majority of the coaching ourselves. So it was just a matter of trying to streamline it as much as we can, getting people to work in the right areas.

“Gordon was great, he was in here with us for the first week and worked really well with us. But it’s just not really a role we use.

“We are in discussions over that (Henry’s) role. We are trying to make the right decision on that.