Warburton not planning major January changes

Rangers boss Mark Warburton has revealed he will not be making another raft of signings in January - because he does not want to upset his current crop.

The Englishman confirmed on Thursday that he and new chief scout Frank McParland are already eyeing up targets ahead of the Championship leaders' expected return to the top flight.

But the Ibrox manager - who brought in 10 players after arriving from Brentford in the summer - has warned the Light Blues faithful not to expect a repeat of that influx once the winter transfer window opens in two months' time.

Warburton, whose side visit title rivals Hibernian on Sunday, said: "It won't be five or six players - far from it. We're looking at one, maximum two players in January. We have a good dressing room. They are where they are in the league because they deserve to be there.

"I think it would be almost disrespectful to your playing squad to go and get five or six players in. The harmony of a dressing room is all important. You saw that with the late victory over Queen of the South and how the boys celebrated together.

"You can't talk about working together on a daily basis and then talk about bringing five or six players in. The moment you do that you lose all harmony in your ranks.''

Gers chairman Dave King has already claimed it will take as many as six new signings to allow Warburton's team to topple Celtic if they clinch promotion this season. But Warburton is in no rush.

Warburton - who dismissed reports linking Rangers with a move for former West Ham skipper Kevin Nolan while also confirming he would not be following up interest in former Barcelona youngster Gai Assulin - said: "You're always busier in May, June and July. Why? Because you have the eight weeks of pre-season to bed in the new players.

"But in January you are up and running and I think if you bring in five, six or seven new signings then it is a huge risk. For us it will be one or two in January and then four or five more in the summer period.''

King was back in Glasgow this week after jetting in from South Africa for talks with his boardroom colleagues.

"I had a good meeting with Dave,'' Warburton said.

"We've had great support. Every player we've gone for early in the season we've managed to get on board.

"The communication lines have been really good and we talk every day. It's really important to us that the owners and the powers that be know what we think of the squad and where we think it is at, where we might be vulnerable.

"If we can put forward options for the what-if scenarios come January, then they know where we stand and we can get feedback as to what we can and can't afford.''

But before focusing on that transfer business, Warburton has the more pressing matters of Sunday's Easter Road crunch.

Gers could move 11 points clear of Hibs if they muster a third victory of the season over Alan Stubbs' side but Warburton does not think the game will be definitive.

He said: "Come 5pm Sunday, we are going to be five, eight or 11 points ahead of Hibs. That's the simple facts.

"So from that point of view 11 points ahead can be regarded a dominant performance. I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a very strong position. But we are only a third of the way through the season. There will still be 72 points to play for - that's a lot of points.

"We've had a good start which we're happy with but it's still early days.''