GUESS who's back. Four years after they departed stage left after a 4-0 win against St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park in May 2012, Rangers return to the big league this lunchtime when they take on Hamilton Accies in the season opener at Ibrox. Let's just say they are too concerned with re-claiming what they feel is rightfully theirs to waste too much time on re-introductions.

There has been good knockabout stuff between Celtic captain Scott Brown and veteran Rangers striker Kenny Miller about who is going to do what to whom this season but that simply isn't Mark Warburton's style. The Englishman tends to be more circumspect than that and the closest he comes to a Churchillian address was venturing his belief that the squad he has assembled is strong enough to reclaim the top flight title at the first time of asking.

"If I turn round and say to the players, ‘let’s finish third’, then what kind of message is that?" says Warburton. "It’s the same as telling the fans we want to finish in the top six. They are not going to buy that.

“We want to finish as high as we can," he added. "To turn round and say we’ll win it is naive and foolish, but do I think we’ve got a good enough squad to do it? Yes, I think we have. We’ve added another layer of quality and we’re in good shape.”

It will almost be as if the last four years hadn't happened when Dave King unfurls the Championship flag before kick off today. Almost, but not quite. For starters, some after shocks from the club's turbulent recent history still threaten to de-rail the club's hopes for a fresh start.

This week's row with Sports Direct and kit suppliers Puma over who has the right to sell the jerseys is a case in point. It could lead to the most sudden change of strip since Sir Alex Ferguson famously ordered his Manchester United players to change out of the grey number they wore away to Southampton in April 1996. But whether it takes a full-blown boycott or not, King must find a route to circumvent the punitive contracts entered into by the previous board if his ambitions for Rangers are to be fulfilled.

Then there are the system problems which the club still has to come to terms with. The £12m which Sir David Murray once lavished on Tore Andre Flo is now regularly thrown about by SkyBet championship clubs, with Rangers now a relatively impoverished party when it comes to loan deals for Barclays Premier League youngsters. The one-time city trader is still searching for one Premiership loan player up front and at the back but feels the market is only going one way. It isn't down.

“This week we went for a young loan player and eight or nine Championship clubs were in for him too," said Warburton. "They could all pay full wages, and that wage would smash our highest out of the water, so that’s the state of the market."

Given the challenges that still face the club, they should be grateful to have a strategic thinkers like Warburton and his director of recruitment Frank McParland on board. In addition to veteran free transfers like Joey Barton, Niko Kranjcar and Clint Hill, Rangers - like Celtic's addition of Moussa Dembele - appear to have reached the conclusion that their best bet is taking advantage of the reduced development fees required when a young player whose contract is ticking down joins on a cross border deal. The recruitment of Jordan Rossiter, Matt Crooks, Josh Windass and Joe Dodoo all fall into this category.

"It is difficult," said Warburton. "But you either walk away or you find a way of resolving it. Rangers have to find a way of beating it. We have to do our business in a different manner, ie. cross border. And it also means relationships with certain clubs, showing what we can offer to loan players. But the danger is you think the market is going to stop, it is not. What would have happened if you tried to buy a house in London ten years ago and thought ‘I’ll wait'."

The Englishman this week distanced himself from the suggestion that Swiss defender Philippe Senderos, lately of Grasshoppers in Zurich, was set to arrive [“It’s like Robin van Persie, I get a phonecall and it’s all news to me," he said] and said that finalising loan deals may have to wait until Premiership teams make a final call on their 25-man squads. A second coming for Tottenham Hotspur defender Dominic Ball, who has a year left on his contract, should not be discounted, but there may be competition.

The cash from entry to next season's Champions League would help square the circle, of course. As will playing to 50,000 sell-out crowds each week. With Celtic facing showdowns with likely rivals Hearts and Aberdeen, and taking a weekend off to face Inter Milan in Limerick, before the first Old Firm match of the season on Saturday September 10, Rangers know that racking up an early lead would work wonders for their self-belief. Last season they won their first 11 matches in all competitions before being exposed by St Johnstone in the League Cup.

While Rangers under Warburton rarely change the way they play, lining up in a 4-1-2-3 shape and attempting to boss possession, how Hamilton approach today's match will be intriguing. "We think they’ll come in, be tight, be very solid, very compact and play to their strengths and look to have a go at us," said Warburton. "That’s what I would do if I was Hamilton."

If the 3-1 defeat to Burnley last Saturday was a corrective to the heady optimism of pre-season, the Englishman was significantly more encouraged when he viewed it again with the sound down. A bit like his old pal Brendan Rodgers said in midweek at Parkhead, Warburton knows it will help his players if the club's fans can stay patient and positive.

"I watched the game with no sound and it was a completely different game," he said. "You realise the fans’ expectations and their demands. We understand them but we hope also they understand the effort going in to take the club back to where it used to be."