Rangers boss Graeme Murty has indicated that new signing Russell Martin is not guaranteed an automatic place in the Gers’ starting line-up.
The Scottish giants announced the signing of the experienced centre-back on a loan deal until the end of the season from Norwich City on Tuesday.
Besides making over 300 appearances for the Canaries, Martin also has 29 caps for Scotland to his name.
But Murty stated that the addition of the 32-year-old does not change the make-up of Rangers’ defence, with the manager going on to praise young defender David Bates’ performances against Aberdeen and Celtic.
The 43-year-old insisted that he is not about dropping people from the team, however believes the new signings should contribute straight away whenever called upon.
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“Not really”, Murty told Rangers TV, when asked if Martin’s addition changes the mak-eup of the defence in his mind from now on.
“It brings different permutations to it, it brings different strengths to it at times.
“But the people whom we throw into it, I look at David Bates coming into the game at Aberdeen, coming into the game at Celtic Park – he stood up to the challenge, actually he rose to the challenge.
“I’m not about taking people out of a team, I’m about enhancing what we have and making us better because I believe we need to move forward.
“We need to move forward and we will move forward and get better and the people who we are going to bring in have a responsibility to go and do that, they have to contribute straight away.
“And they contribute by making us better, and the people who are here have to enhance what we are doing as well.”
Rangers will next take on Fraserburgh in a Scottish Cup game on Sunday before locking horns with Aberdeen in a league fixture at Ibrox three days later.
