RANGERS director Alastair Johnston has told fans that the club is "ahead of the curve" as it recovers from the financial implosion that saw the club drop into the bottom tier of Scottish football.

Mr Johnston, a former club chairman, has spoken out amidst growing disquiet amongst fans about the direction of the club.

The loyalist Rangers fans group Vanguard Bears even suggested the board should "sell up" if they cannot keep promises made after Dave King's consortium wrested control of the club from retail entrepreneur Mike Ashley in March, 2015.

Glasgow Times:

Rangers ultras fan group the Union Bears are to conduct a silent protest in a stance against Ibrox "mismanagement" during Rangers' match against Hearts at Ibrox this Sunday.

After the takeover the new board set a target of 2022 - the club's 150th anniversary - to progress to "the very top".

The interim chairman Paul Murray said they would present a medium to long-term funding plan in the “very near future” after plugging gaps short term by borrowing from the so-called Three Bears.

Asked about the club's progress since returning to the Scottish Premiership in 2016 he said: “We are probably doing a little better than we would have imagined back in the dark days of running out at Brechin in the fourth tier.

“So you have to look back. The fans have been terrific, as I would have expected them to be, to hang in there and hopefully they will be rewarded.

“In terms of looking forward from where we were four or five years ago at the bottom, the progress that has been gradually made, we are probably ahead of the curve in reality if we finish second or third.

“We are making progress.

Glasgow Times: Former Rangers chairman Alastair Johnston.

“Hopefully the curve will be fast but it is still going to be gradual, it is not going to happen overnight.”

The Ibrox club were in the bottom tier of Scottish football in 2012 as the so-called Rangers oldco RFC 2012 plc went into liquidation in October, 2012.

Fans concerns were sparked by Rangers being beaten 4-0 by Celtic in the Scottish Cup semi final and since then stars Kenny Miller and Lee Wallace have been suspended by the club in the wake of a row with manager Graeme Murty.

Last month it emerged that a wide-ranging review of operations at the club had been launched after chairman Dave King was forced to bid £11 million for 70 per cent of the club's shares.

The bid being made by Mr King's South African-based Laird Investments (Proprietary) Limited comes after a court agreed that he and others acted together to force their way into the Ibrox boardroom three years ago.

Glasgow Times:

Mr Johnston, who joined the Rangers board last June, insists Murty’s position is currently being evaluated in an “objective” way.

“We have had the discipline of saying that we will evaluate the situation at the end of the season and the reason that we chose that is that at any given time during the period of his tenure there has been a lot of support for him and sometimes there has been not so much support," he said.

“We as a board have to take a very objective view and not be kind of swayed by the last result, whether it is positive or negative.

“Certainly the weekend wasn’t a good weekend for us. I was there.

“But as I said we have to be disciplined as a board and not be swayed by the emotions at any one game.

“We have to look at the big picture. We owe that to the club, that’s what we are in place to do.”