Ally McCoist admitted it was "far from ideal" that he won't be able to field a number of his new signings, including his most recent, Bilel Mohsni, as trialists in the opening games of the season.
Only those players whose international transfer certificate was last held with a Scottish club will be eligible for Rangers' matches in SPFL League One, the Ramsdens Cup and the League Cup before the end of the club's year-long registration embargo on September 1.
That means Arnold Pernalta, Stevie Smith, Richard Foster and Mohsni, who agreed a two-year deal yesterday could, potentially, sit out as many as eight games before being allowed to make their competitive debuts.
There are also restrictions affecting the four players – Nicky Law, Nicky Clark, Cammy Bell and Jon Daly – signed from Scottish clubs. A maximum of two trialists can play in tomorrow's Ramsdens Cup first round tie against Albion Rovers, but then McCoist can field none in the second round should Rangers progress. No trialists can feature in Rangers' League Cup first round tie away to Forfar Athletic on August 3, while two can play in each of the four league games although each individual can only feature a maximum of three times.
"Nothing comes as a shock but it is a major disappointment," said the Rangers manager. "The one that completely baffles me is how you can play a trialist in the first round of the Ramsdens but can't in the next round? It's strange, that's all I'm saying.
"Pre-season has gone well and you have a squad you want to build on but you can't really do it.
"It creates a false start to the season but it is a problem we'll have to handle. There's a positive way to look at it – the boys who start will be trying to keep the jersey and perform at a level that will make it extremely difficult for the other boys to get in."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article