Rangers are not prepared to match Jay-Jay Okocha's wages

He was responding to remarks attributed to team boss Alex McLeish, who was quoted as saying he could not match what Bolton might pay Jay-Jay Okocha.

"I think what Alex was saying was that we did not want to pay such wages for a player of his age," said McClelland.

"With the exception of Man Utd, Arsenal and Chelsea, we can match their wages."

McClelland, talking on BBC Radio Scotland's Your Call programme, stressed that Rangers would have funds to buy players in the summer.

We have stabilised the debt and hope to break even next year Rangers chairman John McClelland

The club's strategy would be to combine the purchase of players that "the club can afford", Bosman signings - players coming out of contract with other clubs - and players coming through the youth ranks.

French defender Jean-Alain Boumsong is due to arrive in the summer from Auxerre and McClelland suggested that, at 24, he represented better value for money than the likes of Okocha.

McClelland hoped that the club would develop an ever-increasing proportion of their own players thanks to the Murray Park training complex.

"The future benefits will far outweigh the �15m investment," he said.

Profits fund Gers signings

Murray Park, together with Ibrox Stadium, accounted for �40m of the massive debt that had led the club to sell major players like Barry Ferguson, Neil McCann and Lorenzo Amoruso during the summer.

Rangers announced a �2.5m profit for the first half of the financial year this week and, although there was likely to be a �5.6m loss for the full 12 months, McClelland was delighted with that compared to the �29m loss the previous year.

"We have stabilised the debt and hope to break even next year," he said.

Share issues and a flotation of the club had been rejected as ways of addressing the debt because of the present, difficult financial climate.

However, he hoped that alternative ways of addressing the debt would be announced soon.