Rangers will face a new threat from across the city next season but it is the internal audit of their own playing staff that will determine the potency of their Clydesdale Bank Premier League title defence.

Snatching the championship on the final day has given Rangers' fragile finances an essential cash injection via automatic entry into the Champions League but it will not radically alter the need to reduce the squad to a more sustainable size.

Put simply, the days of Sir David Murray forking out for an assault on Europe's premier competition are over. The chairman has been conspicuously low-key since his team completed a remarkable turnaround in the final weeks of the campaign. His mind has been preoccupied with handling the effects of the global credit crisis on his own business concerns, of which Rangers are merely a small part that takes up an inordinate amount of time.

There is still a need to remove some of the highest earners from the wage bill and to trim the first-team pool to around 16 players, creating enough breathing space for the youth academy to blossom. The squad is split into three categories, each one with different issues for Walter Smith to address when he returns from the Champions League final later today.

There are those whose contracts expire in a matter of weeks, among them David Weir, Christian Dailly and Brahim Hemdani. Only one, the new captain, will remain unless Smith decides the 39-year-old should go out on his shield. Weir has stated his intention to prolong his career whether at Ibrox or elsewhere but with Rangers in no position to spend liberally, if at all, conscripting the old warhorse for one final year should be a priority for Smith.

Dailly, despite featuring in the run-in, will return to his family home in London, while Hemdani will leave a wealthy but unfulfilled man after spending an entire season out of the picture, picking up in the region of £17,000 a week for the privilege of a season ticket in the main stand.

There are those in the final year of their contracts - Barry Ferguson, Kirk Broadfoot, Steven Smith, Graeme Smith, Nacho Novo, DaMarcus Beasley, Charlie Adam and Alan Gow - whose agents have received short shrift in their attempts to renegotiate.

All will be encouraged to find alternative employment with the exception of Broadfoot, whose foot surgery will rule him out for the start of next season. It is this band of players that Martin Bain, the chief executive, will spend the summer trying to recycle. Their residual value will plummet with every passing month and already talks have begun with Blackpool and other Coca-Cola Championship clubs to make Adam and Gow's loan arrangements permanent.

Ferguson, the deposed captain, has resigned himself to leaving on good terms but, categorically, his terms. The possibility of invoking the Webster Ruling was considered until FIFA admitted the experiment had failed and now Ferguson is giving serious consideration to joining West Bromwich Albion if, as is now almost certain, Tony Mowbray remains at the Hawthorns. Rangers are content to save around £1.5m in wages due to the midfielder for the final year of his deal and, thus, will not demand a significant transfer fee from West Brom or any other suitors. Relocating the Smiths and Beasley might not be so easy. Murray has instructed that the practice of compensation packages is now a thing of the past for a club whose debt levels have risen again and, while the players are empowered to hang on for a final year before negotiating Bosman transfers from January, the club cannot afford to pay players who will not be part of the plans.

There are also big decisions to be made with the remaining assets with longer-term contracts. The need to sell at least one asset remains a probability but with the Champions League revenue used to appease the bank, who have already begun renegotiating the payment plans of Rangers' overdraft facility, the sense of urgency is no longer as profound. None the less, it is almost certain the top goalscorer, Kris Boyd, will be pawned despite his insistence he wants to stay at the club for the rest of his career.

Put simply, Smith is keen to relieve himself of the weekly conundrum created by this unique plunderer of goals. If Birmingham City come back with another offer in the region of £3m, Boyd will be encouraged to leave for his own sake as the manager plots a new strategy that will revolve around Kyle Lafferty as the new focal point of the Rangers attack.

Boyd might not be the last big-name departure. If Allan McGregor cannot re-establish himself as first-choice goalkeeper, Rangers would also be willing to cash-in on him rather than paying in excess of £12,000 per week for a back-up to Neil Alexander. Pedro Mendes is another ripe for selling after one enigmatic season. The Portuguese has been inspirational in flashes but, having pushed out the boat for him last summer, Rangers may consider the 31-year-old worth moving on if they can recoup the £2m paid to Portsmouth.

It would be preferable to losing the cornerstones of any ongoing success. Madjid Bougherra has again been linked with a move to Marseille but, with Weir entering the twilight of his career, and others, such as Andy Webster, showing no sign of providing competition, the Algerian is now a key component of Rangers' defence and their hopes of a respectable Champions League campaign. Ditto Steven Davis.

If Smith has his wish, and is able to trim his squad while being given sufficient funds to procure some much-needed width, then the Northern Irishman will move infield to form a central hub alongside Maurice Edu and Kevin Thomson if, indeed, Mendes moves on.

Before last week's triumph, the scale of Rangers departures was understood to be in the region of 10 first-team members. As Celtic plan for a rearmament process under new management, with Owen Coyle the likely candidate, Rangers embark on their own summer of upheaval.