Dave King admitted a new Rangers director of football is not imminent - but he does expect to have someone in place ahead of the summer transfer window.
The Ibrox chairman initially wanted the role filled before appointing a head coach but was turned down by Southampton recruitment supremo Ross Wilson.
The arrival of Pedro Caixinha as boss has put the position on the back burner but King is still keen to make changes to the structure of the football department as soon as possible.
King, who spoke to Talksport, said: “It certainly will happen but we are going about it with the same thoroughness as we did with the manager. We won’t put ourselves under any pressure.
“It’s a process that’s ongoing and I imagine it will happen sooner rather than later.
“But it’s not imminent.
“There is not as much rush now. Initially when we were looking at the changes, ideally we’d have liked that done before the manager.
“Similar to the manager position, where we did take our time, one of the mandates that was given to Stewart was to take our time, to look carefully and to not make a rush appointment and look at what was available.
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“If we thought there was a possibility of making a permanent appointment, then let’s do that. If we don’t feel the right candidate is there then let’s make an interim appointment, but let’s not do that without making the proper research.”
South Africa based King has spent the past few days in Glasgow meeting the new manager and addressing the supporters.
He admitted there was disappointment at former boss Mark Warburton ‘engineering’ and exit to take up the manager’s job at Nottingham Forrest but he insisted the club are moving in the right direction.
Financial figures released for the last six months of last year showed a £300,000 profit and King is convinced Rangers can claw back the gap to Celtic with a return to European football and the end of the Ibrox club’s brutal retail arrangement with Sports Direct.
The chairman said: “I understand and most of the supporters understand that this is just the first period and it’s going to take a couple of years.
“This year we are behind on the pitch where we thought we would be. The challenge was to get in to Europe but we still expect that will happen.
“There has been disappointment this season but it won’t change the long term ambitions to close the gap and then overtake Celtic in the reasonably foreseeable future and get back to being the no.1 club in Scotland.
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“We are not going to do that by breaking the bank along the way. We have to go forward with a methodical financial plan.
“We have a strong commercial base in place with the support we have. There are 50,000 fans coming most weeks, with 44,000 season ticket holders.
“What we are missing in comparison to Celtic is two key revenue streams.
“One is Europe. We have always been in Europe but that gap will start to get closed next season.
“The other important on is, of course, the retail side. Rangers over the years had the strongest retail operation in the UK but that has been completely lost under the present situation.
“So the challenge is to get in to Europe and get a proper retail approach in place.
“The discussions have continued. I’m more optimistic than I was six months ago that we will get to some resolution in a time frame that will allow us to have a proper kit launch ahead of next season.”
King is hoping Caixinha can make up ground on the Parkhead side next term but he has vowed to back the boss with cash in the summer.
He said: “In the short term the appointment of Pedro is the main opportunity to bridge the gap. From a purely resources point of view, Rangers have significantly more than the other clubs, apart from Celtic , by a couple of hundred percent.
“My ambitions for this year was to run Celtic a lot closer. We expected Celtic to win the league but we felt we would be second and somewhere in between them and Aberdeen in third.
“We have to bridge that gap. It will be interesting to see in the next couple of months if Pedro can get more out of the squad.
“He knows how he wants to play football and he knows the demands for next season. He will now look at the squad and see what he can get out of the squad for the rest of the season.
“We will definitely invest more money in the club, and that includes myself. That’s a given.
“It depends how much. We over invested with Mark, relative to what we thought, but Pedro will look at the squad and see what he needs.
“We will have to give him the support he needs accordingly.”