Amid the upheaval of key figures departing, and differences of opinion in the boardroom, Rangers have a new season to plan for.

Ally McCoist is due to meet Craig Mather, the chief operating officer and interim chief executive, today to discuss the strategy for the football department. The relationship between the manager, the CEO, and, at some clubs, the chief scout/technical director, should be central to operations, since it merges the business and football sides. McCoist and Mather have had one meeting together, and how quickly they can form trust and a working relationship will be key to the success of this summer's player recruitment.

Twelve months ago, Rangers did not even know how the club would emerge from administration. In the end, Rangers Football Club plc was liquidated, and the business and assets were bought by the consortium fronted by Charles Green. The rest of the summer was spent in fraught negotiations with the governing bodies, until Rangers were eventually granted their original SFA membership and took their place in the third division. With a 12-month registration ban beginning last September 1, signing players, and managing budgets, became fraught.

There ought to have been a greater opportunity to begin a more measured approached to rebuilding the football side of the operation but the relationship between Green and McCoist deteriorated when the former tried to remove the manager's two assistants, Kenny McDowall and Ian Durrant. The situation has moved on, with Green having resigned and Imran Ahmad, a significant figure in pulling together the consortium last summer and then the club's commercial director, having left last Friday night. It is now down to McCoist and Mather to build a rapport and an understanding with each other.

The COO talked in an interview last weekend of his initial meeting with McCoist, and said he had told the manager that he wanted him in charge of the football operation. This encompasses the youths and the reserves, and presumably scouting. Green previously had considered appointing a technical director, but Mather may not share the same vision. He was director of sporting development, which involved conducting a review of Murray Park, but no initiatives were introduced.

Green tended to manage the club's affairs himself rather than delegate, but Mather now has an opportunity to shape how the business is run. Last weekend, he remarked about noticing a "them and us" feel between the staff at the training ground and the staff at Ibrox. He intends to improve this situation, but the workings of Murray Park are paramount at a time when Rangers ought to be rebuilding with a clear view towards returning to the top-flight in as strong a position as possible.

Green wanted to cut costs at the training ground, but resources there are already thin. There is no scout since Neil Murray departed – after Green suspended him but then failed to find any evidence of wrongdoing – not enough youth coaches, or the training software deployed by the majority of leading clubs. All of this requires investment, not cuts. The wage budget is the second highest in the country and could be reduced, but it is evident that the team needs refreshed. New signings are required, so the summer will demand a turnover of players, some of whom are on long-term contracts.

McCoist needs to add to his squad, and he needs to be supported by the board. The challenge is in finding the balance between enhancing the first team and making sure that the support operations are robust enough to deliver a self-sustaining football strategy. By the time Rangers return to the top-flight, when the team will require investment to challenge Celtic, McCoist will want a core of players he can rely on, but also a scouting network and youth set-up that feeds into that first team.

The manager knows what he wants, but under Green there was no opportunity to implement it. Mather will have to work with the resources available from the club's revenue streams, so it is the priorities that need to be established. Having never worked to a set budget during his time as manager – Craig Whyte's ownership regime was ad hoc and increasingly dysfunctional – McCoist will welcome the opportunity to put his plans in place, and know the boundaries he needs to work to.

The present and the future need to be addressed. In an ideal world, McCoist would seek players under 25, who have a resale value and who can form the basis of a team that will progress through the divisions together. This ought to be achievable on less than the current wage budget, but the manager is hamstrung by the contracts Green negotiated last summer, and the registration embargo. He can sign free agents on September 1, and Cammy Bell, the Kilmarnock goalkeeper, already has agreed to move to the club. Others will follow – McCoist hopes to be able to name two more this week – but he has admitted that while players are attracted to playing for Rangers, and in front of significant crowds at Ibrox, they weigh that up against performing in the second division.

McCoist can be persuasive, though. The young players, such as Lewis Macleod, Barrie McKay, Chris Hegarty and Fraser Aird, need experienced mentors, so signing a couple of older heads, whose professionalism and know-how can set standards and improve the squad, are more than justified. It is a time for clear-headed thinking, and for trust to develop between McCoist and Mather.