MARK Warburton last night declared Rangers would refuse to pay above their valuation of a player in the January transfer window after having two bids for Michael O’Halloran rejected by St. Johnstone this week.

The McDiarmid Park club turned down a second offer of £150,000 for O’Halloran, the 25-year-old forward who has been one of the form players in the Premiership this season, from their Ibrox counterparts on Wednesday.

Warburton declined to talk about his interest in the former Scotland Under-21 internationalist – but he did stress that Rangers would turn their attention towards bringing in other targets if they believe an asking price is too high.

“If it doesn’t represent value on and off the pitch then why enter in to it?” he said. “It’s like buying a house and knowing you’ve paid too much money for it. If you aren’t comfortable then don’t do it.

“There’s a big difference between being comfortable and being brave. But right now if it doesn’t represent value or the player doesn’t want to be here, then we won’t pursue it.

“We know what the market is and what we have to pay for a player. I sit with David (Weir), Frank (McParland), Jimmy (Stewart) and everyone who is part of it and we decide what is good value.

“We might say X, but someone else might say Y, we base it on what we think is the value and how it will benefit the club.”

Despite their failure to bring in O’Halloran and French midfielder Toumani Diagouraga from Brentford this month, Warburton revealed he was optimistic that Rangers were close to making more signings soon.

“We are getting there,” he said. “We are getting close with a couple of targets so fingers crossed we’ll get them done. We have to make sure it suits all parties but we are making progress.

“January’s more difficult than the summer window. You just hope you can get the right pieces to fit at the right time. Teams who are doing well don’t want to lose their best players while teams that are struggling don’t want to lose their best players either. That won’t change, it’s the same north or south.

“We like to do our business early, it was the same at our old club as well. We showed that in the summer. It was a case of get it done early, get the permanent ones done and then maybe look at the loan market. Last minute causes poor decision making.

“I’m not worried. The club will go about its business and hopefully do it in the right way. At the end of the day we want players who want to be here.”

The Englishman, who has brought in English winger Harry Forrester and Polish keeper Maciej Gostomski on short term deals this month as well as securing Matt Crooks and Josh Windass of Accrington Stanley on pre-contract agreements, expressed hope Barrie McKay would join Andy Halliday and Jason Holt in committing his long-term future to the club soon.

“We’ve very close with Barrie,” he said. “We just need to dot the Is and cross the Ts. Getting Andy and Jason was really pleasing, I am delighted. It’s about rewarding players who have done well.

“There was no sympathy vote with the deals. They have earned those contracts. Everyone will now be geared to their next contracts. We as a club need to have that flexibility in place that we can respond to players doing well.

“I think those two have shown already they have quality but at 22 there is loads more to come. Andy’s been asked to play out of position and he’s done exceptionally well. Jason has just got better and better. There’s loads more to come from him.”

Meanwhile, Warburton stressed there had been no enquiry from Aberdeen about signing Cammy Bell, the former Scotland goalkeeper who has been out of action this season after undergoing knee surgery, during the transfer window.

Rangers take on Livingston at home tomorrow and Warburton is hopeful his side can win the game and move further ahead of one or both of their nearest challengers Falkirk and Hibs, who play each other at Westfield on Sunday, in the second tier table.

After emphatic wins over Hibs and Cowdenbeath at home and Dumbarton away, he is confident his charges have recovered from the dip in form which saw them joined by Hibs on points at the top of the Championship.

“There’s an inquest after every point that gets dropped," he said. "But this is a young team and you’ve seen how they have responded. Every time we’ve dropped points - against Morton and Livingston - we’ve used it, we’ve learned from it.

“We’ve looked at areas we’ve had to improve, when to be adventurous in certain areas, when to be needed to tighter. We’ve maintained the attacking philosophy and shown that against Hibs, Dumbarton and Cowdenbeath."