Rangers midfielder Ryan Jack has stressed the importance of the Gers' pre-season training camp in Portugal due to the club's early season Europa League qualifying campaign.
The Gers are currently in Portugal for their summer camp as they prepare for the Europa League qualifiers starting early next month.
Reflecting on their experience in the competition last season, when they took on Croatian side NK Osijek in a second round qualifier and eventually came out 2-1 winners, Jack said that he personally felt that it was the toughest of ties.
And taking lessons from that, the 27-year-old feels that Rangers must make the most of the training camp in Portugal to be in top shape for the qualifiers.
“There are no doubts about how important this period is, because we are starting earlier then we need to start pre-season earlier than other teams usually would", Jack told his club's official website.
“The calibre of games we will play in Europe will be high, they are tough games and thinking back we played Osijek which personally I thought was one of the toughest ties we had in the Europa League.
“It shows you that if you do take the competition lightly and don’t put in the extra training and hard graft in pre-season then you could get caught out.
“The coaching staff will cover all bases and I am confident we are ready for when we start again.”
Rangers's first qualifying round opponents will be either FC Prishtina or St Joseph’s, with both sides playing out a 1-1 draw in the first leg of their tie.
