The club bought Lafferty, who cost over £3million from Burnley, in the belief he will make a sustained impact over several seasons.

Smith knows the 20-year-old can continue to develop as a player but will let him prove himself in the early stages of his Rangers career, and the frontman could force his way into the first team for the start of the campaign if he does well in pre-season.

Lafferty will face plenty of competition for selection, but the 6ft 4in striker is unlikely to be intimidated by the reputations of his rivals.

"Kyle Lafferty is a young lad that I feel has a very good future," Smith told Rangers World.

"Hopefully he'll come in and do well in his first season, but at 20 years of age he's got time on his side and he may well be one for the future for us.

"We can only look at the present and we hope next season he'll have an influence on our team as well.

"He's one player I do think can do exceptionally well."

Lafferty was playing in the Coca-Cola Championship last season, but he could be involved when Rangers begin their Champions League bid in the qualifying stages.

Smith has allowed captain Barry Ferguson and defenders David Weir and Carlos Cuellar added time to recover from their endeavours of last season, when the trio missed barely a handful of games between them.

But all three will be back by the time Rangers bid to qualify for Europe's elite competition, from which they earned £7.7million in TV and sponsorship deals last season.

Rangers overcame FK Zeta and Red Star Belgrade in qualifying last year and will have to clear the hurdle again after missing out on an automatic place in the group stages when Celtic pipped them to the Scottish Premier League title.

"They're always edgy games and I don't think anyone can take that away," Smith said. "But the experience and the confidence we gained last season, I would hope would stand us in good stead going into these games."