Ally McCoist denies Brett Holman link as Bain outlines need for three new players

Rangers have arrived in the country ahead of the Sydney Festival of Football to find the local media have once again linked the 26-year-old with a move to Ibrox. Holman impressed during the recent World Cup in South Africa, scoring twice for the Socceroos against Ghana and Serbia.

The AZ Alkmaar forward is adamant he knows nothing of an imminent move to Glasgow, comments which were echoed by the Ibrox assistant manager.

"Holman is certainly a player that I like and I know that Walter (Smith] likes him as well," McCoist told Rangers' official website. "I won't lie, he's someone who excites me. I saw him a couple of times at the World Cup and he impressed me.

"He came on and took his goals well but there has been no contact made at all between ourselves and his club with a view to him getting him involved with us."

Meanwhile, Lee McCulloch is sure the Ibrox players can overcome jet-lag to shine in the four-team tournament with Blackburn, Sydney FC and AEK Athens. The Rangers squad completed their 27-hour journey from Glasgow to Australia via London and Bangkok at 6.30am local time yesterday morning.

"We've not been here long and we're all feeling pretty tired at the moment as it was a long trip," the Ibrox utility player told the club's website.

"But we're looking forward to the tournament and getting things under way because the three games we have here are really important to us.

"We've done two weeks of training now so we're at the stage where getting game time under our belts is a big thing for us.

"The opposition we will be facing is of a really good standard and we know we'll need to be at our best to do well.

"Once we get used to the change of time zone, I'm sure we'll be all right and I think this trip will be really worthwhile for us. I can't wait for the games to start.

"We've only had one game up until now against Queen of the South and the majority of us only played 60 minutes in that one. In pre-season, the main thing is building your fitness and sharpness up but when you're at a club like Rangers there's pressure to win too and we want to do that."

Before setting off, Rangers chief executive Martin Bain had revealed the club are targeting three new players as he urged fans to keep the faith following this summer's exodus from Ibrox.

Danny Wilson became the sixth member of the Rangers' Clydesdale Bank Premier League title-winning squad to leave the club when he signed a three-year deal with Liverpool this Wednesday. Smith this week took just 13 senior players on his side's pre-season tour of Australia and more departures are possible before the new campaign begins.

But Bain has backed Smith to work his magic to offset the loss of the likes of Kris Boyd, Kevin Thomson and Nacho Novo and deliver a hat-trick of SPL titles.

Bain said: "As things stand right now, we need three new players guys of a decent standard. At the moment, we have a couple on the radar, players we are looking at. It's two at the moment but by the end of the transfer window, I hope to have signed three."

Debt-laden Rangers are currently operating under a business plan agreed with major creditors Lloyds Bank, which meant there were always going to be departures from the club this summer.

Bain added: "We both know the players we want to go for. We were also well aware that this current situation was inevitable.

"It is about bringing cash in now to make the pot as big as we can.

"We don't want to end up selling people at the end of the window and then not have time to spend the cash that generates.

"We know it looks bad to be going to Australia with just 13 players but if the fans have faith we will sort this out.

"No, we won't have tens of millions of pounds to spend, but we are doing exactly what needs to be done."

Meanwhile, Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson has revealed new signing Wilson is just the first of many young players with "exceptional talent" he will be able to bring to the club.

"In tandem with what we're doing with the first team, we've got to have our eyes and ears alert to any young talent that could be future stars," said Hodgson. "We need more players of that type of quality. Danny Wilson is certainly one and I'm very pleased we've brought him into the club."