Gers returned to the Hummel Training Centre on Monday to begin the hard graft ahead of the new campaign, and their work is set to step-up a notch as they depart for an intensive training camp in Portugal today.
Assistant boss McAllister is thrilled with what he has seen so far from his charges, and explained to RangersTV: “It was quite a short summer and the fact we are in the Europa League nice and early means we are back early.
“The first three or four days have been very encouraging. There is always that wee sense of anticipation and a wee bit of nervousness, and there are some new arrivals, though not as many as last year so we have more of a settled squad.
“We have gone to the balls really quickly – the tactical and technical stuff has been excellent, so it has been very encouraging and we are all bouncing.”
The short break between last season and this is a natural benefit when it comes to the fitness of the players, as is their professionalism – something again which was praised by McAllister.
“There is very little drop off,” he continued. “I would say nine-tenths of the players go away and are conscientious. They probably have a week of down time before they start doing their programmes and start to look forward to the first day of training.
“That is going to help us definitely going into the first game of the season. The new players who are arriving, if we can get them into the group nice and quick, and they will benefit from going away for a week in Portugal, and that will help them tremendously.
“Then we have the players who are coming back from international duty and filter into the squad – we are excited.”
Gers have been able to include new signings Jake Hastie, Greg Stewart and Sheyi Ojo in their squad over the last few days, with McAllister pleased with how they have settled-in.
He added: “It is an easy group to come into as there are some good guys and some good senior pros here. They have been welcomed and they have settled-in very quickly.
“Instantly, you can see the quality that is there and all of a sudden, that just lifts the whole training session as well.”