KENNY McDOWALL may be given the Rangers manager's job in the long-term, chief executive Derek Llambias told the club's annual general meeting yesterday.

McDowall was handed the job on a temporary basis after Ally McCoist, the club's manager, was placed on ''gardening leave'' on Sunday after his resignation earlier this month.

"Kenny has our full support," said Llambias. "He is in charge until the end of the season and perhaps beyond."

However, McDowall, who was McCoist's assistant for the three years the club's record goalscorer was in charge of the club, faces the toughest environment of any Rangers manager of the modern era.

The club sits nine points behind Hearts, with the Edinburgh club playing a game in hand against Cowdenbeath tonight, in the race to win the SPFL Championship and automatic promotion to the Premiership.

There were also a strong indication at the annual general meeting that Rangers would no longer recruit experienced players on long-term contracts.

David Somers, the club chairman, said :'' Rangers Football Club has been living beyond its means for many years and much of the cost cutting and efficiency improvements should have been addressed years ago by previous boards when we were in the lower divisions. But they weren't, so we are doing it.

''A material part of our costs relate to player costs, however, and these can only be addressed over a long period of time because of the length of the contracts. These contracts are often measured in years, not months.''

The chairman emphasised that he wanted more players from the youth academy to play in the first team.

''We also need to look at the football side for a number of reasons.Firstly, there has for some time existed a chasm between the talented young players being developed at Murray Park and our first team. We need to focus on ways of developing our own young players for the first team rather than continually buying-in players,'' he said.

Llambias, who was named chief executive last week and was a close associate in Mike Ashley's cost-cutting at Newcastle United, said ''hard and difficult'' decisions had to be made at Rangers.

Llambias, who stepped down as Newcastle managing director in June 2013, denied he had been on Ashley's payroll immediately before taking the role at Ibrox, but claimed he had helped the St James' Park club "stand on its own two feet" and would roll up his sleeves to get Rangers back on its feet.

Llambias added: "Not everything I do will be popular but everything I do will be in the club's long-term interests.

"We need financial stability off the pitch and great football on the pitch. We want to get Rangers back into the top flight and the Champions League. That is our aim and hopefully next year I will give a much better speech."

He may have swift decisions to make in the transfer window as Rangers may be tempted with offers for Lewis Macleod, the midfielder, and Lee Wallace, the Scottish international left-back.

His first task today, though, will be to travel to Hampden to meet with the board of the Scottish Football Association to discuss a way forward over the likelihood of Ashley taking the reins of the club.

There is a barrier to his gaining further power at the club and it centres on an agreement with the SFA that stated Ashley would limit his involvement with the club. The businessman owns 8.9% of Rangers shares and has provided the club with £3m in loans over recent months to ease the club's financial problems.

The club and the Newcastle United owner face SFA charges over alleged breaches of these charges and the talks today will not deal with these. Rather, they will be ''informal'' discussions over what Ashley's plans for the club are and how they would be carried out.

Meanwhile, Rangers captain Lee McCulloch paid tribute to his departing manager last night.

''A big thanks to Ally McCoist for everything he's done for the club during the time we have worked together,'' the Scottish internationalist said on twitter. ''We have won leagues and cups together and his efforts to take us forward have been incredible. He always did his best and that should never be forgotten. Ally was my hero when he was playing for Rangers, and he will always be a legend in my eyes.''