Rangers will receive funds needed to challenge Celtic, says vice-chairman Paul Murray

[ian1964 10,596]

PAUL Murray, the Rangers vice-chairman, last night confirmed that Mark Warburton, the manager of the Ibrox club, will receive the money he needs to challenge Celtic for the Ladbrokes Premiership next season.

 

Warburton stressed he will require further funds to strengthen his squad in the summer after his side had defeated Celtic in a penalty shoot-out in the William Hill Scottish Cup semi-final at Hampden on Sunday.

 

The Englishman, whose side has already won the Championship and Challenge Cup this season, yesterday revealed that he had spoken to Dave King, the chairman and major shareholder, and will hold further talks this week.

 

The 53-year-old admitted that he would have to recruit more players than he had first anticipated in the close season if Rangers beat Hibs in the Scottish Cup final next month and qualify for next season’s Europa League.

 

However, Murray has stressed that Warburton, who has recruited well on a small budget since being appointed last summer, would get the backing he needs to launch a credible challenge for the Scottish title in the 2016/17 campaign.

 

“We believe in Mark and his team,” he said. “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 Frank McParland (Rangers Head of Recruitment) 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. What a way to end our four years by winning the Scottish Cup and qualifying for Europe. That would be wonderful. Of course there is a lot to do to achieve that and there are important games before then.”

 

Warburton revealed that he had already presented the Rangers board with his signing targets – but stressed that he is keen to keep his squad lean next season and did not necessarily intend to spend large sums.

 

“I’ve never looked at budgets,” he said. “It’s us now, we put forward individual players and the lines of communication have been great. We’ve put forward our options in various positions and what we think we need to add some quality to the current squad.

 

“We get feedback on that straight away and from that feedback we know where we are. But if you have so many players that are not involved in the squad, too big a squad is far more damaging than too small a squad.

 

“We are closing the gap on the team which is at the top of the Premiership - if it’s Celtic, Aberdeen or Hearts. But closing the gap doesn’t necessarily mean spending lots of money. Closing the gap means improving the quality of our squad.

 

“It’s not always about spending £2m, £3m, £4m or £10m - whatever it might be. It’s about adding quality and adding characters who fit into our squad. A lot of our homework and research is on the characters, to see how we think they fit in.”

 

Asked whether he had spoken to King since he had returned to Scotland, Warburton added: “I had a good conversation with him. We will be continuing those discussions at functions tonight and tomorrow night. I’ll get a chance to speak to him in detail. That’s the aim, to talk about things going forward. It’s always better to speak face to face, rather than through emails or phone calls.”

 

Meanwhile, Warburton stressed that he will speak to both Arsenal and Spurs about the possibility of Gedion Zelalem and Dominic Ball, who both featured in the win over Celtic at the weekend, respectively returning to Rangers on loan next season.

 

“We have to talk to them and between now and the end of the season and find out what their plans are,” he said. “They might have very different plans. They may already have loans allocated for those particular players.

 

“But what we have to do is show a loan at Rangers is beneficial for their assets. They are two very talented boys and they fit in fantastically well within the group. They are well liked within the group, they contribute to the group.”

 

Elsewhere, Warburton has expressed his unhappiness at Ball being ruled out of the final as a result of the yellow card he picked up against Celtic, his second booking in the competition, and urged the SFA to consider changing their rules.

 

http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/14435721.Rangers_will_receive_funds_needed_to_challenge_Celtic__says_vice_chairman_Paul_Murray/

[ian1964 10,596]

[forlanssister 3,088]

The Premiership will be won on the training pitch not the transfer market.

[barca72 440]

The Premiership will be won on the training pitch not the transfer market.

 

I don't entirely agree with that.

I think quality and value will always enhance hard work.

[buster. 4,974]

The Premiership will be won on the training pitch not the transfer market.

 

It's about the footballing operation (FO) as a whole doing a professional job which an important part of is the training pitch.

 

We managed to outpass Celtic rather than get involved in a frenetic OF match......because of the training pitch but for various reasons (injuries, players cup-tied, etc) struggled to translate it into a relative amount of chances.

 

As PM says, McParland is an important part of the FO and if we are to have success next season we'll need a similar positive hit-rate with new signings.......and as MW says, it's not about throwing money at a transfer window eg. Boyata cost Celtic about double what we spent last summer.

 

A good FO including that training pitch will get the right type of player in, IMPROVE them and put them in a team that (all) together will amplify the qualities of the individuals with a sprinkling of synergy. For so long we have been used to hardly ever improving players that we seem to forget that we should be doing that. We have tended to pay top dollar for players who have been improved, arrive on a high wage and subsequently 'stand still' or regress.

 

We have been weaned on managers looking to solve problems with money and a poor & expensive hit-rate.

 

We now can't afford to go down that route and have found a way to improve finances and football.

 

------------------------------

 

A European campaign wouldn't necessarily mean much revenue and might actually cost the club. So we shouldn't push any boats out because of it unless we qualify and were to do well.

 

We would be unseeded in a draw (if we qualify) and run the risk of drawing a decent side in a potential first tie. IF we were to go out, this would mean only one home gate and would also mean doing without two League Cup group stage home gates.

Edited April 19, 2016 by buster.

[rbr 1,254]

I don't entirely agree with that.

I think quality and value will always enhance hard work.[/QUOT

 

If that were the case we wouldn't have beaten Celtic , nor would you have Ross county or Inverness winning cups , the old days of Rangers or Celtic just buying players and leaving it up to them is over , one of my biggest gripes with Walter Smith was his belief that "coaching is over rated , all you need is good players and a good environment " never sat well with me , if that were the case why is Guardiolla on the training ground coaching and drilling his players every day .

[jhunter 0]

 

is that the daily record's own banner there?

[buster. 4,974]

is that the daily record's own banner there?

 

Would show initiative, so probably not.

 

But they are right to focus on Lawwell and the broken strategy.

[Ser Barristan Selmy 222]

If that were the case we wouldn't have beaten Celtic , nor would you have Ross county or Inverness winning cups , the old days of Rangers or Celtic just buying players and leaving it up to them is over , one of my biggest gripes with Walter Smith was his belief that "coaching is over rated , all you need is good players and a good environment " never sat well with me , if that were the case why is Guardiolla on the training ground coaching and drilling his players every day .

It's worth nothing that as tremendous a victory as this was, that was the worst Celtic side I have ever seen. The smaller clubs have won trophies largely because we have been so diminished, and also because Scottish football is so poor.

 

To be honest, if Celtic don't spend much in the summer then we won't have to do too much to win the league as based on that performance, we are clearly the superior side. That said, pretty much everyone in the Europa League (should we qualify) will cause us much more problems and our defence would get ripped apart by any half decent outfit. We will need to spend cash on decent quality if we want to avoid embarrassment in Europe next season.

 

PS - it's also quite astounding that Celtic have spent almost £30m on players in the last three seasons, including over £10m last summer. We are fortunate they have got player acquisition so wrong in recent seasons because they are a dreadful side.

Edited April 19, 2016 by Ser Barristan Selmy

[calscot 0]

I don't entirely agree with that.

I think quality and value will always enhance hard work.[/QUOT

 

If that were the case we wouldn't have beaten Celtic ,

 

I'm not sure what you're disagreeing with here. Are you saying quality and value DON'T enhance hard work, or are you saying we have no quality or value in squad?

 

nor would you have Ross county or Inverness winning cups ,

 

Don't understand this bit either - are you saying they had no quality but a load of hard work? Are you saying if a Junior team was the hardest working team in Scotland, they would win the cup?

 

the old days of Rangers or Celtic just buying players and leaving it up to them is over , one of my biggest gripes with Walter Smith was his belief that "coaching is over rated , all you need is good players and a good environment " never sat well with me ,

 

And he was a real failure as a Rangers manager? Arguably our most successful manager of modern times and you don't like his philosophy?

 

if that were the case why is Guardiolla on the training ground coaching and drilling his players every day .

 

So you're saying Barcelona and Bayern have no quality, it's just coaching and drilling? I'm also pretty sure Walter was on the training ground most days.

 

I really don't think you can easily compare someone who has had no success whatsoever in a provincial league or even provincial club in a big league, with a successful manager of Rangers.

 

Your whole post is a bit bemusing.