Not least because they have boldly spent £6m to acquire Kyle Lafferty, Kenny Miller and Andrius Velicka… and swell the number of frontline attackers on Rangers books to an unwieldly eight. Daniel Cousin and Jean-Claude Darcheville will surely be shed to reduce that figure to a more manageable six.

Assuming, of course, that takers can be found. Cousin is unloved because he is temperamentally-challenged. And although Smith did not say as much, in turning 33 this month, Darcheville's delicate hamstrings aren't going to become reliable. They make the player, who completed only one full match in the whole of last season, too much of a risk.

In terms of risks, though, Smith's £2m move for Miller takes the whole packet of digestives. The Scotland internationalist might even make Cousin a fans' favourite. The first player in the modern day to cross the Old Firm divide and back again, the Ibrox faithful would have made a plague of locust more welcome than Miller. But it would be wrong to tar the majority of those appalled by his arrival as bigots. Miller is the only player to be given another stint at one of the Glasgow clubs after failing in previous spells at each of them.

"For me I think he's reached stage in career, at 29, he'll be able to use the experience he has," Smith counters. "He's a terrific team player, a willing runner and I think we need that. In terms of the reaction generated, I'd just ask everybody not to make judgments on previous situations and his previous time at Rangers. And if the supporters see that's the case, I'm sure they'll get over their misgivings – I hope that anyway. (His time at Celtic] doesn't come into it. I'd hope these days are over. From my own point of view, that aspect of it didn't come into it."

Meanwhile, £3m was agreed with Burnley for 20-year-old Lafferty whose strike rate is Miller-like, or equally Miller-lite, with a goal roughly every four games. "It is a wee bit of a departure, we are paying money for a player we are looking to develop," Smith says. "His position is through the middle and the thing about his goalscoring is he was played wide on the left at Burnley."

Smith insists these strikers were not bought to push the sparingly used Kris Boyd towards the exit door. "He was our top scorer last season and I hope he ends that up again," says the Rangers manager, who maintains there is "no chance" of Lee McCulloch leaving.

If lack of firepower arguably allowed the title to slip away from Rangers, they should have sufficient striking options to prevail in a Champions League second qualifying round. The most fraught opponents they could face are such as Swedish champions Gothenburg, Slovenian champions NK Domzale and Israel's Beitar Jerusalem. FBK Kaunas would present newsprint-munching opposition. Even allowing for the fate that befell Celtic against Artmedia three years ago, Rangers should surely have the wherewithal to pick their way through this stage.

Smith admits these qualifiers have "huge financial implications" but derives confidence from the manner in which a team thrown together a year ago produced what was required to arrive at the Champions League proper.

POTENTIAL OPPONENTS

Among the more dangerous teams Rangers could face in the Champions League second qualifying round are:

Gothenburg (Sweden)

NK Domzale (Slovenia)

MTK Budapest (Hungary)

Anorthosis Famagusta (Cyprus)

Beitar Jerusalem (Israel)

Dinamo Tbilisi (Georgia)

FBK Kaunas (Lithuania)