Rangers: Mark Warburton will be backed in transfer market

Rangers director Paul Murray has vowed to back manager Mark Warburton with cash. Picture: SNS

And the Ibrox director believes that winning the Scottish Cup and getting straight back into Europe would be a massive boost to the club’s summer recruitment drive.

In the aftermath of Sunday’s semi-final win over Celtic, Warburton reiterated that cash has to be spent so that Rangers can mount a credible challenge for the Premiership title next season.

Murray yesterday confirmed that would be the case and paid tribute to the job being done by the Englishman and his assistant Davie Weir.

Murray said: “We believe in Mark and his team. We have supported him so far and we will do it again going forward.

“Our recruitment is underway. We have plans in place but we need to continue to do our research and [head of recruitmen] Frank McParland is an important guy in that regard.

“If we could get into Europe it would be fantastic. We didn’t budget for it so financially it would be good. But it’s more about status. To get into Europe would help in recruiting players and it is the stage Rangers should be on.

Rangers will face Hibernian in the Scottish Cup final at Hampden on 21 May and Murray added: “Hibs will be motivated as ever in terms of winning the Cup. They have a tough schedule ahead of them but it might be to their benefit. They will keep playing and we have three weeks of no games after the season finishes.

“But we will take that all day. No-one is complaining.”

Murray believes Rangers deserved Sunday’s win and feels it was the perfect validation of the appointment of Warburton and Weir in preference to Stuart McCall, who had been brought in at the end of last seasom,

Murray said: “I think any fair-minded person would say we deserved to win.

“The best thing for me was the emotion of the fans. After four years of tough times they really deserved it. It was just an explosion of joy at the end.”

“Mark and David deserve all the credit. What a great season for them and they have done the club proud.

“I have said before that I have great respect for Stuart McCall and he’s a great guy. But it was maybe just the wrong time for him. We were still in the Championship, we were at a bit of a crossroads and the board felt we needed to get some fresh thinking.

“I think having the combination of Mark, who is progressive and modern thinking, and Davie, who knows the club inside out, was a really powerful one. It has clearly worked really well. They have recruited well by bringing in some good players – and we will do that again in the summer.”