MARK Warburton stopped short of saying he was envious when Celtic secured a place in the Champions League group stages for the first time in three years with their nerve-jangling victory over Hapoel Be’er Sheva on Tuesday evening.
Yet, Warburton readily admitted yesterday that playing in Europe’s premier club competition, something which the 5-4 aggregate win over Hapoel ensured that Brendan Rodgers’s side will do this season, is an ambition with Rangers.
“At some stage I would like to, absolutely,” he said. “You have to get the squad to deal with all those games and the big clubs do that. But getting there has got to be our long-term aim.”
Read more: Rangers are "very close" to signing Swiss centre half Senderos, Mark Warburton reveals
The early-season form of Rangers in the Ladbrokes Premiership – they have drawn with Hamilton and beaten Dundee and Motherwell by narrow margins – hasn’t convinced many supporters they are capable of winning the Scottish title in the 2016/17 campaign.
But Warburton, whose side take on Kilmarnock in the league at Rugby Park tomorrow evening, is comfortable with the position his side are in just now, even with a game against Celtic at Parkhead looming next month, given the number of new players who have arrived at Ibrox this summer.
“We have to win the league, that’s what we have to do,” he said. “To get into the Champions League you need to win the Premiership title, it’s that simple. Do that and you’re in the qualifying rounds. ‘Are we ready to win the title?’ is the obvious question.
“We’ve got to make sure we’re more than highly competitive. I’m very comfortable with what we’ve got in terms of the squad. We just haven’t found our best team yet in terms of combinations.
“We know how good the players can be, but we are still gelling in players, we are gelling in formations. We are not there yet. We are starting to get there, things are starting to fall into place. We have got some good options now.”
Warburton has, though, hinted he will pass up the opportunity to see Celtic in action in person when the Scottish champions play Aberdeen in the Premiership at Parkhead on Saturday afternoon.
Read more: Rangers are "very close" to signing Swiss centre half Senderos, Mark Warburton reveals
“I might dip in there, but I always have games watched by people I trust implicitly," he said. "But if it’s right for me to go then, of course, I will. Sometimes it’s better going yourself, but I hate it when I see people going along just for the sake of it.
"My job is here, trying to do it as best as I can. So if I’m travelling somewhere and I get home at one in the morning and then get back up at half past four and I’m not ready to deliver the quality of product here then I won’t do it, I’ll send someone else.
“But the coverage of their game last night, with the replays that you can pause and rewind, allow me to look at the positions the players take up which you can’t always see when you’re there because it happens and then it’s gone."
Elsewhere, Warburton welcomed Matt Crooks, who has been sidelined with an ankle injury since joining Rangers from Accrington Stanley in the summer, coming through an under-20 game against St. Mirren on Tuesday unscathed.
“Matt hasn’t played in five and a half months so it was good to get a run out,” he said. “It’s about giving him some confidence to play football again. He has been training hard and doing well, but it was a nasty injury that kept him out for quite a while. Hopefully he will be involved when we go over to Linfield, but there is no timescale on Matt.
“He has had a hard time of it, with the injury and frustration as well. Moving to Rangers and not being able to join in has been hard for him. But he has shown a great attitude for a young player. He has worked hard with the physio team and is getting there.
Read more: Rangers are "very close" to signing Swiss centre half Senderos, Mark Warburton reveals
“Matt can play defensive midfield because he is technically comfortable on the ball and sees the game. And he can be a centre-half as well. He is 6ft 4 and a half inches, a huge size. He has good physicality and a good spring."
Elsewhere, Warburton has, for the second time in as many weeks, stressed he is comfortable with Joey Barton commenting about Celtic following a post the midfielder made on social networking website Twitter during the second leg of the Champions League play-off.
However, he did state that he would caution his player, who last week claimed that Brendan Rodgers was suffering from a “mid-life crisis”, if he felt his output became unacceptable.
“Joey’s an intelligent individual and I’m sure what he said was tongue in cheek and that no rational mind would see it as anything other than that,
“If we feel that anything he does is inappropriate then we’ll tell him. No player or member of staff here has free rein – everyone must do what’s best for Rangers Football Club and I’m sure there was no malice intended there. He’s an intelligent person on social media and there was no disrespect there.”
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