Mark Warburton: No fixed budget for Rangers signings

Rangers manager Mark Warburton, centre, with Kenny Miller, left, and Barrie McKay promote Rangers 2016/17 season tickets going on sale. Picture: Craig Williamson/SNS

The Rangers manager, who held discussions with King last week over his summer recruitment plans, revealed he has no fixed budget in place as he looks to sign around six new players for a tilt at the Premiership title in 2016-17.

But Warburton, who has already completed pre-contract deals for Accrington Stanley duo Matt Crooks and Josh Windass, insists it would be pointless to place a firm figure on what Rangers will need to spend ahead of a campaign which could also include Europa League football if they beat Hibs in next month’s Scottish Cup Final.

“We don’t work like that,” said Warburton. “We go on a case-by-case basis and put our players forward [to the board] and say why we think they add value and quality to the squad. Then we go from there.

“Up until now, we’ve had great support [from the board]. Conversations have been very positive, communication lines have been first class. So we are in a good place right now.

“It is not just about the money. I hear people saying ‘you need £5 million’ or whatever. Nonsense. It is about how you spend what you have available. It’s really important to us that homework is done into the character of a player, how he is going to fit in, how he is going to deal with disappointment. It’s easy enough to only see the good in a player from the initial platforms of what he does on the pitch.

“But what is he like off the pitch? How does he deal with the crowd? Does he bite back at the referee? Has he had any incidents off the field? How does he deal with fans? It is all these things we have to find out to make sure that they can fit in here and deal with the expectation of playing for a club like Rangers.

“We have been working on this for weeks and weeks. The groundwork has been going on since the January window closed to try and identify the targets, the likelihood of securing them, what might it cost, what might prevent us, what could be the curveball.

“You can be right down to the wire on a signing and it falls down at the last minute. You see it time and time again.

“So we have to make sure that all the work is done and we get them over the line. Ideally, we will report back here on June 18 for pre-season training and we will already have as many of our permanent signings in as possible.

“You want to bed them in, then look at loan signings from the English Premier League which become  available at the end of July or beginning of August.

“It’s ongoing and we are constantly looking at players and who might fit the gap. It’s not easy.

“Anyone who tells you recruitment is easy is talking nonsense. You have got to make sure they fit you on the pitch and off it.

“I’ve spoken about unity a lot since I came to Rangers. People ignore it and that’s fine, but for me it’s a massive part of what we do.You need to get the environment right. The dressing room is really strong and on Sunday night at our awards dinner, the players mentioned time and time again about it being the best dressing room they’ve been involved in.That’s really important for us. So anyone coming in has to fit into the dressing room and add to the quality of it.”

Rangers wrap up their Championship fixtures this week with away games against Livingston tonight and St  Mirren on Sunday.

Warburton confirmed that top scorer Martyn Waghorn, sidelined since February by a knee injury, will make his return to action in the latter fixture as he targets a role in the Scottish Cup Final on  21 May.

“He hasn’t got a chance for Livingston, although he will tell you he absolutely has,” said Warburton. “He would tell you he could play 90 minutes and extra time right now.

“He trained this morning and looked really good. All credit to the staff who have been working with him.

“He will be heavily involved at the weekend, involved in our closed door game down south after that and will be ready for the cup final.

“He is a hungry player. If you think about it, he has watched his team-mates beat Dumbarton to clinch the league, watched them win the Petrofac Training Cup and then watched them win the Old Firm game. So ‘itchy feet’ doesn’t begin to describe  Waggy.

“That’s what he has gone through and any player in their right mind would want to play in those games.

“He is desperate to play again. As a striker especially, he wants to get his touch back. He wants to be scoring goals and going to a cup final on good form. He will be fine,” added Warburton.

“He’s had a great season and, hopefully, he can round it off nicely as well.

“He will get game time on Sunday, then really good game time in the friendly. He will be ready for Hampden, no doubt about that.”