Alex McLeish's stint as Rangers manager looks likely to end within days, with reports last night suggesting David Murray has finally lost patience with the former Scotland defender. This week's League Cup quarter-final defeat at Celtic seems to have been the last straw for the chairman, who has seen the team win only twice in 11 matches.

Agreeing a suitable severance package with McLeish would now seem the only way forward. He earns a reported £850,000 a year (€1.2 million), and any replacement would demand a similar salary. His settlement, along with a severance payment for his assistant Andy Watson, would come close to £1 million, meaning funds would be limited at a club hoping to attract a new manager.

Whoever they choose will also undoubtedly require money to improve the playing squad, making the removal of McLeish an expensive business. Only Dado Prso, Fernando Ricksen and Thomas Buffel would command decent transfer fees, so how Murray juggles the finances is the biggest question hanging over the club at the moment.

McLeish is not thinking of resigning, so Murray may opt to make a similar move to the one he made in 2001, when Dick Advocaat was moved upstairs to accommodate McLeish's arrival, before the Dutchman disappeared from the Rangers pay roll. Walter Smith left under similar circumstances in 1998.

George Burley, who enjoyed spectacular success in his short stint at Hearts this season, is instantly available, but family commitments in Ipswich mean he seems more suited to employment in the English Premiership.

Ottmar Hitzfeld and Didier Deschamps have also been linked with moves to Ibrox Park, but neither would come cheap or without commitments over funding for players. Terry Butcher, a favourite among Rangers supporters during his playing days, has enjoyed relative success at Motherwell and would be a more cost-effective option, but he is known to be reluctant to leave Fir Park.

McLeish is due to take his players back to Parkhead on league business tomorrow week - followed by a game at Porto in the Champions League, before heading to his previous club Hibernian - and another defeat would leave Rangers 15 points off the pace.

But the manager still believes Rangers can gain revenge at Parkhead.

"We are capable of getting a result," he said. "People will turn around and say differently, but we are definitely capable despite our problems and injuries."

He gave no indication that he is almost resigned to a future away from Ibrox in the immediate aftermath of Wednesday's cup defeat. He had described his team's pre-match mood on Wednesday as "bullish", but that much was not evident in a lame performance that produced only a single shot on target in their 2-0 defeat.

Rangers' problem is quite simple: they lack class players.

McLeish will be held accountable for that, but Murray has not helped the situation by sanctioning funds for a stream of mediocre operators, many of whom have come and gone through the Ibrox gates almost unnoticed.

There is not much local concern, for example, that Jose Pierre-Fanfan, who left Paris Saint-Germain for Glasgow in the summer, is out of action. The central defender has already become a bit-part player, on a sizeable wage, at Rangers.

Porto's poor European campaign offers Rangers some hope going into their next Champions League Group H match, but after winning only two points from two draws with Artmedia Bratislava, supporters and players alike cannot be expected to arrive in Portugal with confidence.