RUSSELL MARTIN insists Rangers’ crunch Champions League qualifier is NOT season-defining.
Gers host Panathinaikos in Tuesday’s first leg at Ibrox.
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But with Cyriel Dessers, Hamza Igamane and new signing Djiedi Gassama not fit for 90 minutes, Kieran Dowell, Finlay Curtis and Danilo all look likely to start.
Martin admits the stakes are high, but stressed: “It’s not going to be a season-defining game, it’s not.
“It’s a really, really big game, but a season is a long season.
“It will be defined by what we do between now and May. It’s a big game. Every game for Rangers is a big game.
“Every game is a must-win at Rangers. But it’s not season-defining.
“The squad will look very different in four or five weeks, I’m convinced of that.
“But the team we have now, the squad we have now, we have to put in a performance that looks like us, feels like us and one that we can build off and ultimately win the game.
Both Dessers and Igamane have been linked with moves this summer.
The pair will be involved at some stage, with Martin full of praise for the man ready to step up.
After last season’s injury hell, Danilo is fully fit and firing again and last night the Gers gaffer insisted: “They’re not ready to start a game yet, they’re not ready to play 90 minutes, but they’re definitely ready to contribute.
“As is Gassama. Gass is not ready to play 90 minutes.
“But they all played 45 minutes on Saturday, which put them in a really good place and I like a lot what I’ve seen from all three of them.
“All very different but they’re three players that excite us to chance to work with them and hopefully keep them here and excite them about being here.
“We will work with them and they can definitely help us, all three of them can add.
“We’ll see them at some point over the two ties, how many minutes will be defined by how the game is going.
“But they’re physically ready to help us, just not over 90 minutes yet.
“Danilo has been great, I really enjoy working with him.
“He doubles up as a translator, he speaks about five different languages.
“He’s technically really good, he has scored a lot of nice goals in pre-season and links the game well.
“And what I love about him, he gives everything in every session, absolutely everything he has got.
“He wants to learn.
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“He helps a lot with the other players as well, so he’s been great and I hope he can take that forward from pre-season into the season.”
There are concerns among the Rangers fans that a match of this magnitude is coming too soon.
Should they progress, Gers would face either Viktoria Plzen or Servette in the third qualifying round.
Should they exit, Martin’s men would have to overcome either Besiktas or Shakhtar Donetsk to reach the Europa League play-offs.
The Gers boss said: “We’ll find out tomorrow if we’re ready.
“In terms of preparation, work, physically, tactically, the connection between the way we work, the players, us, I’ve been so pleased over the four weeks, but it’s not a long time.
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“Tomorrow’s going to be a really big test for us to see how far along we are and see how much work we have to do.
“I think that’s the most interesting thing for us as a coaching staff, is that tomorrow we will learn a lot about the group, we will learn a lot about how we need to prioritise moving forward over the next few weeks.
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