ALLY McCOIST has admitted he needs to build an entire new team for Rangers' campaign in the second division campaign next year and would have no hesitation in spending £10m to do so if necessary.

That was the amount promised by Charles Green following the club's share issue last December, although McCoist yesterday cast doubts on that figure being available. He cannot add to his squad during the transfer window due to a one-year registration embargo but can recruit out-of-contract players from September 1.

McCoist is aware he needs to vastly overhaul his squad for the next challenge, with Nicky Clark, the Queen of the South forward, one of many players on his radar.

The Ibrox manager acknowledged it should not take anywhere near £10m to assemble a squad good enough to win the third tier of Scottish football but felt that he would be leaving himself exposed to criticism if he did not spend all the sums available to him, especially if Rangers subsequently struggled as they have done at times this season.

"I would hope to be busy this summer in terms of getting players in," said McCoist. "We desperately need to get some free transfers in. It is quite a bizarre situation the Rangers manager saying that we need to get some free transfers in but we need to [do that], it is as simple as that. As many as 11 players? I would take that amount of signings. I would take as many as I could possibly get within the budget. Let's be honest – we need it. We don't have centre forwards, we don't have centre halves. We have bits and pieces all over the place.

"We have long-term injuries like [Dean] Shiels. Chris Hegarty just had a hernia operation yesterday. That was a boy who we didn't expect to play many games. Now I'm scratching my head because we can't play him. That's where the football club is at the moment.

"I feel sorry for the supporters again. Normally [former managers] Walter [Smith], Paul Le Guen or wee Dick [Advocaat] could entice people with a major transfer signing, which has always been the case at our place. I am not in any way, shape or form trying to ridicule the players we are trying to get but we certainly won't be able to go and entice a multi-million pound signing, that is very, very evident."

Having been previously promised funds for players that never materialised by former chairman Craig Whyte, McCoist is similarly sceptical about talk of a vast transfer war chest this time around. "Right at the start, looking to get players in – we'd a rough idea things weren't right then when the players we were looking for were getting knocked back," he recalled. "We were promised all sorts of money to spend and we've been promised money to spend again and, I don't know, maybe I'm turning into an old cynic, I'm not sure that £10m will be there.

"I think we are in a position where it is an easy thing [for directors] to say at the moment because I can't spend it anyway because of the transfer embargo. Would it be appropriate to spend £10m in the second division? Probably not. But, if I am going to be totally selfish about it, I would have to spend it to get out of the division and keep me, Ian [Durrant], Kenny [McDowall] and the rest of the staff in a job. If we don't we won't be. You can't have it both ways. You can't not spend it and then be criticised by everybody for this, that and the next thing. You have got to balance it up. I didn't spend any money this year, with the exception of Temps [David Templeton], and, whether we like it or not, were criticised heavily for our performances."

McCoist dismissed the idea of a big-name signing arriving at Ibrox in September. "Not where we will be playing, let's be honest. A marquee free transfer would cost you bundles. That is the only reason they will come to SFL2 and that isn't going to happen. Your top, top players aren't going to be in SFL2. I still believe that the players we will get, we need to go for experience. We are not going to get the top youngsters at the moment because, simply, they are under contract. The ones that aren't under contract won't want to come to SFL2. That is where we are."