Barry Ferguson insists Rangers matched manager Philippe Clement's demands during the January transfer window.

The Ibrox club brought in Fabio Silva (Wolves, loan), Mohamed Diomande (Nordsjaelland, loan) and Oscar Cortes (Lens, loan) to bolster their squad ahead of a busy second half of the season.

Some fans have criticised the recruitment with a striker widely regarded as one of the key areas of focus for the window.

But Ferguson now feels his former side are in a positive place going forward.

He wrote in the Daily Record: "There's always a buzz around transfer deadline day and the rush to recruit before the market closes for another six months.

"And I take my hat off to Rangers for the work they have done to beef up Philippe Clement’s squad. As the Belgian said himself before the window had even opened, my old club is not exactly the richest in the world. So they’ve had to be creative in the way they have gone about their business and the men in charge of the finances have also shown they have ambition to match the manager’s demands.

"As I’ve written many times in this column, now is not the time to start getting carried away. There’s a lot of work still to be done if Rangers are to get back to where they belong over the coming weeks, months and years. But I do believe they are now heading in the right direction. It feels as if the club is coming together again and there is a sense of alignment from the top down, which, let’s just say, hasn’t always been the case over the past 10 years or so.

"So I’m quietly pleased with what I’ve been seeing and with the progress that’s clearly being made under Clement. He started early by bringing in Fabio Silva on loan from Wolves before January had even begun and by adding Mohamed Diomande and Oscar Cortes over the past few days, he’s added to the options available.

"The signing of Diomande looks particularly shrewd and not just because of the way the numbers were structured. They’ve landed an exciting talent on loan without having to stump up a significant fee until the summer.

"That’s smart financially but it also means the player will have an extra six months to bed into the squad and to familiarise himself with the club and with Scottish football. I suspect it might be next season until we see the best of him – and it might be a similar case with Cortes because the young man hasn’t played a lot of football so far this season in France.

"But Clement will gently bleed both of them into his team over the coming weeks and that will come as a huge boost – and maybe even a bit of a challenge – to the guys who have been there for some time. I know how I felt during my own playing days, when I was still a youngster trying to hold on to my place in the starting 11."