Russell Martin expects new-look Rangers squad to be in place for Panathinaikos

New Rangers head coach Russell Martin expects a “different” squad for the Champions League opener against Panathinaikos as he stressed the importance of early signings.

Martin will open his Ibrox career against the Greek side in the second qualifying round in the final two weeks of July.

“I think the squad will look different,” he said in a club video. “We will have some players in by then as well, so the earlier we can do that, the better, so they become ingrained in what we are trying to build culturally and in terms of performance.

“The players are back in on Monday. That’s the most exciting bit. We will see what the players can do, how we are going to have to adapt and tweak to make it really built-in and ready for us, and then the rest will take care of itself.”

Martin was speaking after the William Hill Premiership fixture announcement handed him a trip to Fir Park to face Jens Berthel Askou’s Motherwell side.

“We have a big fixture before that to really focus on and then we can start really preparing for Motherwell and focusing on that,” he said.

“But wherever we go we want to be ourselves, we are going to try and be the team we want to be all the time.

“It’s exciting, it’s against an old team-mate of mine in Jens. We played together at Norwich many, many moons ago and we have stayed in touch.

“We know him, his character and personality and how he will have his team ready, so it will be tough.

“But they are all tough. We need to focus on ourselves and what we are going to be in the next four or five weeks, and making sure we are really ready to attack every challenge, whether it’s the European game before that or the start of the league season.”

Panathinaikos were the highest-ranked team in the three unseeded teams in the league path of the draw.

Martin said: “A lot of people said to me it’s maybe the toughest draw we could have had but we have to play against and beat good teams if we want to compete in European football.

“It gives us something to work towards and look at them but the focus is going to be on us and making sure we are ready to compete against anyone by the time the game comes around.”