Mark Warburton has claimed that he won’t be rushed into spending Dave King’s ‘no-limit’ transfer warchest.
After a week in charge at Sevco Warbo has still to complete his first signing although swoops for Danny Wilson and Rob Kiernan seem close to completion.
Three years into their journey the Ibrox side have 15 players with first team experience with half of them still in the rookie stage of their careers while others such as Nicky Law, Cameron Bell, Dean Shiels and David Templeton are tainted by last season’s quadruple failure.
With just over four weeks to go till the first round of the Petrofac Training Cup Warbo has little time to put his masterplan into practise against a background of financial chaos as the club awaits Mike Ashley’s next move to recover a £5m loan.
“There must have been 100 names bandied around over the weekend that we’re apparently meant to have approached, but that’s not the case at all,” the former Enfield ace revealed.
“We’ve got to look to get the right players at the right value for the club. That’s really important to us, good value for every pound that we spend.
“We never want to give the impression that we are desperate for players because we don’t want agents to think we are a soft touch. That will never be the case.
“It’s about us making the appropriate additions. People will say you have to get five players in quickly, but they have to be the right players. If you rush into it, you are on a hiding to nothing. So it’s about getting the right players at the right time.”
As Warby discovers the reality of working at a disfunctional club the claims of absent chairman Mr King sound increasingly hollow.
St Mirren, Alloa, Hibs and Queen of the South in the first four Championship fixtures will provide a stiff opening test for the former Brentford boss against claims from Mr King that money is there to be spent.
“There’s no upper limit,” the South African based tax criminal claimed at the launch of season tickets two weeks ago. “I can say that because we’re talking in a sensible environment where the guy knows what he’s doing.
“He’s not going to go and sign Cristiano Ronaldo, we all understand that. He’s doing it within a mandate where he knows what we are as a football team.
“I’m saying there’s no limit in terms of if he comes along and says, ‘I’ve got a guy here and I think I can get him, he’s going to cost x thousand pounds a week and he’s not in the budget, but I think he’d make a difference to the club and help us over the next couple of years’ then I’d say, ‘Take him’.
“We’re not going to say, ‘No, you’ve already spent your money’.
“If a good player comes up and we’re coming to December and leading the league by 15 points, and he says, ‘This player’s come up, we can get him now but we won’t be able to get him in the summer’– I’ll say, ‘Get him now’.”
Mr King was absent from Warburton’s unveiling as manager and also failed to turn up at the General Meeting called by Sports Direct to repay their £5m loan.
