Rangers boss Walter Smith is confident Kyle Lafferty and Maurice Edu have a future at Ibrox. Expectations were high when both players arrived in the summer with hefty price tags, but neither has featured in the first team as much as would have been expected.

"I felt we had to bring in a few younger players and it always takes a little bit of time for them to settle in," he said.

"Lafferty and Edu will play a big part for Rangers in the coming years, I've no doubt about that.

"But it does take them a little time to settle and at Rangers you have to have experienced players around you as well.

"Even the younger ones who have played in Scotland for quite a number of seasons, your Steven Whittakers and Kevin Thomsons, took a bit of time to settle into the team.

"Nowadays we are not able to get a higher level of player.

"We were able to go to England and get them in previous times, but now we have to look at the younger ones.

"And people's expectations of the younger ones should not be the same as those on the experienced players."