Conor Coady is set to plead with Leicester City bosses to be omitted from the club’s pre-season tour - in order to seal his summer switch to Rangers this week. Record Sport understands the 32-year-old hopes to be given permission to move north before the end of this week - in order to join preparations for next week’s Champions League qualification first leg clash with Panathinaikos. The former England international has asked to be given game time during Leicester’s summer friendlies as he attempts to fine tune his own fitness levels ahead of his move to Ibrox. But the deal has been placed on pause while bosses at the King Power have been scrambling to get ready for their return to the Championship following Premier League relegation. Leicester are the only club in English football to remain managerless ahead of the new campaign with a move to appoint Spaniard Marti Cifuentes still bogged down in red tape. The former Queens Park Rangers boss is believed to be waiting for a visa to be rubber stamped before setting up a new home in the East Midlands - and there have been suggestions that Cifuentes could block Coady’s exit as he weighs up his defensive options. But Record Sport understands Coady has set his heart on becoming a linchpin of Russell Martin’s new look side and has been pushing behind the scenes for the deal to be rubber-stamped and signed off ahead of Leicester leave to set up a 10 day long pre-season training camp in Austria on Wednesday. Ironically, the club has been searching for a new manager for most of the summer, since Martin declined an offer to take over as Ruud van Nistelrooy’s successor and headed to Rangers instead. Martin is a huge admirer of Coady and it’s believed the player is desperate to team up with him at Ibrox. But Coady is also aware that Rangers are racing against the clock to be ready for the crucial double header against the Greek big guns, with the first leg in Glasgow in less than a week’s time. Martin’s recruitment drive gathered pace on Tuesday when 21-year-old winger Djeidi Gassama clinched a £2.2 million move from another of England’s crisis clubs, Sheffield Wednesday. The Frenchman has penned a four year contract to become the seventh signing of a hectic summer rebuild following the captures of Lyall Cameron, Max Aarons, Joe Rothwell, Manny Fernandez, Thelo Aasgaard and Nasser Djiga. Now Coady hopes to be given the green light to become Martin’s next major reinforcement before the end of this week. Follow Record Sport on Twitter , Facebook and Instagram for all of the up-to-the minute breaking news, video and audio on the SPFL, the Scotland national team and beyond. You can get all the news you need on our dedicated Rangers and Celtic pages, and sign up to our newsletters to make sure you never miss a beat throughout the season. We're also on WhatsApp where we bring all the latest breaking news and transfer gossip directly to you phone. Join our Rangers community here and our Celtic community here . Tune in to Hotline Live every Sunday to Thursday and have your say on the biggest issues in Scottish football and listen to Record Sport's newest podcast, Game On , every Friday for your sporting fix, all in bitesize chunks.