Rangers boss Mark Warburton says his players must go up a level
Thursday 21 April 2016 20:08, UK
Mark Warburton says Rangers players have to "go up a level and stay there" as they prepare for life back in the Scottish Premiership next season.
The Englishman has guided the Ibrox side to the Championship title and the Scottish Challenge Cup in his first season in Glasgow.
He could go even further and secure European qualification if his side beat Hibernian in the Scottish Cup final at Hampden on May 21.
Rangers secured their spot in the final with an outstanding win over Celtic before going down to a 3-2 defeat against Hibs at Easter Road and Warburton says his team will be ready to step up and cope with the rigours of European football if they find themselves in that position.
"Last Sunday against Celtic, which was the biggest challenge for the players thus far, they stepped up magnificently well," he said. "It wasn't a fluke, they deserved to win that game of football, so they moved up. We have to keep getting better, naturally.
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"The idea now is to go up a level and stay there. We can't have peaks and troughs. If you win the Scottish Cup, if you are in Europe, that becomes the norm.
"You can travel to Uzbekistan on Thursday night, get back in the early hours of Friday morning and have a big game on the Sunday against Aberdeen, for example."
Warburton says his Rangers players can learn from the Tottenham team this season, who have mounted an impressive Premier League title challenge despite having to travel far and wide in their Europa League campaign.
"I spoke to our friends at Spurs; they played away, got back Friday morning at 6am, went to bed, came in Saturday, flew to Villa and beat Villa 2-0 - that's what we have to learn from and look at and say 'that's the level'.
"We have to keep getting better, the players will. We will add to it. Our recruitment between now and August 6th is of vital importance and we need to get that right."
