MARK WARBURTON is not keen on using the word short when speaking about his squad. Tight and lean are his preferred choices and that’s the way he likes it. If that doesn’t sound too rude.
As things stand, Rangers are going to win the Championship this season and get back to the Premiership, most likely with a bit to spare. If they were able to add more players in January then it would take something extraordinary for anyone to catch them.
However, the manager is not one to sign players for the sake of signing players – someone should tell him what used to happen back in the day at Ibrox – and rather his philosophy is that there is little point in having a huge squad when a more modest amount perfectly suits the project, as he likes to say.
It seems a sensible position to take and given how the man has handled things thus far, it would be unwise to suggest, as I did, whether he felt the squad was lacking in numbers.
“We are lean and tight through choice,” said Warburton. “We don’t want a number of dissatisfied players. It is about balance. The bigger danger is having too many players rather than too few.”
So no six or seven signings in January? “Absolutely not. More harm would be done by that than good. We have a good dressing room and a good squad. If we can add a bit of quality then all's well.”
Rangers certainly have enough quality to win the league and one of the reasons why, in Warburton’s mind, is that this group have come together in relatively short space of time. How this has happened is that they have been made to feel welcome.
With the greatest respect, there are more than a few at the club whose career had taken some blows before landing at Ibrox and a bit of TLC applied to a bruised footballer’s ego never hurts.
"Sometimes you get players who have been out on six, seven or eight loan spells,” said Warburton. “David Button at Brentford had 13 loan clubs but never really put down roots. For these guys to develop as players, you have to put down roots and feel wanted.
“It sounds really petty, but they have got to feel like they belong somewhere. When you are only a few weeks here, or a few months there, you never really feel like you are part of anything. You talk about long-term goals and that but if you are only there for four weeks, how can you feel part of the process? So it's important.
“There are some really good players here who just need to find roots and they will thrive on the back of it. Look at James Tavernier or Martyn Waghorn, We always said he needed to play 15 games and for me he's going to go from strength to strength, and it's about getting the right players at the right time."
There has been one extra player at Murray Park this week in the shape for Gai Assulin, a former Barcelona and Manchester City youth player. An attacking play-maker, the 24-year-old Israeli made 67 appearances for the B team at Camp Nou and has 21 caps for his country’s under-21 side.
He is believed to be available on a free after being released by Real Mallorca.
Warburton revealed: “I'm only seen him for one day and I have seen a talented player, but you have got to look at a player over the course of a few days to see how they do and then take it further.
"You have got to do your homework and due diligence and investigate is he right for us and are we right for him. Then you have talks and we ask questions and we want him to ask us questions as well. It's got to be right for all parties."
This was Warburton’s first meeting with the media since Scotland’s failure to reach yet another finals so it was up to this Englishman who is just here to tell us all what to think about the state of our national team.
He said: “I look at games and I am amazed there's so much doom and gloom. It goes in cycles, doesn't it? You have got to look to the positives and you have got to look at the talented young players you have.
“I'm looking at our players here and there are some really talented young players who have not even been select for the international squads. So the standard must be decent.
“You can lose a game by one and people are doom and gloom, but the higher up the pyramid you go, the finer the margins are. I think the negativity is unwarranted and you have got to look at the positives. If there's a problem, then look at ways to resolve it, not bemoan the fact there's an issue."
That sound way too sensible for us. He should know better than now.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel