Friday 31 July 2015 18:12, UK
Rangers boss Mark Warburton has insisted that he has no direct influence on the club’s pursuit of Hibernian midfielder Scott Allan.
The Ibrox side have made two bids for Allan, who has handed in a transfer request.
However, Hibs manager Alan Stubbs has repeatedly stated that the 23-year-old will not be sold to their Scottish Championship rivals.
Warburton has largely refused to be drawn on his club’s bids for Allan but did say that Rangers will always look to add quality players to their squad.
“Scott is a Hibs player and I have said many, many times it is disrespectful to even talk about another club’s player,” Warburton said.
“All I will say is, from a Rangers perspective, we will always look for quality players; we have to.
“I am repeating myself now but it is an important point for us, because the moment we stop looking for quality players we become stagnant and we go backwards so we are always looking to improve when we can.
“Every player in the Rangers squad knows that is the nature of the beast here, there is always competition for the shirt and you have to respond in the right way to it. And the moment we take that competition or challenge away then we have a real problem.”
Allan started on the bench as Rangers beat Hibs 6-2 at Easter Road last weekend in the Petrofac Training Cup, with Peterhead now set to visit Ibrox in the first round of the League Cup on Sunday.
Warburton said his job is to prepare players and staff for upcoming matches and insisted he would leave transfer negotiations to others at the club.
“I will let the clever people sort that one (transfer dealings) out and I’ll keep to the simple things here,” the former Brentford boss said.
“My job here is managing the squad of players and the staff and making sure the environment is right to produce the level of performance we are seeking. That is all it is. It is about the environment you create.
“So when I talk about adding quality on and off the pitch that can include staff members as well. It is making sure that we have the best environment here in all areas to best prepare and develop the players because at the end of the day the players are your balance sheet items.
“That’s the squad of Rangers Football Club and we have to make sure we give them the best opportunity to be the best they can.”
Watch Celtic v Ross County live on Sky Sports 1 from noon on Saturday, August 1 and Dundee United v Aberdeen also live on Sky Sports 1 from 3pm on Sunday, August 2.
