GETTING Mark Warburton to admit Rangers are going to win The Championship is not an easy task. Even now.

The fact he admitted a 14 point gap over Hibernian was a “hell of a marker” put down by his team is as off message as the managers gets. It’s up to him how he plays it, of course, but it would be nice for him to shout from the rooftops a little.

However, it was interesting that perhaps really for the first time, Warburton spoke fairly forcibly about where Rangers are and where they are going, which is top of the league and counting down the games when promotion to the Premiership is confirmed.

Beating Dundee on Saturday in the Scottish Cup at Ibrox is going to be no easy task. Forget what the bookies say, it’s the Premiership side who should be favourites. However, if Rangers can win, reach at least a semi-final and win the league with something to spare, that would make this season a much bigger than many inside Ibrox could have hoped for.

“It’s a really pleasing gap, there is no point in saying otherwise,” said Warburton. “But we never looked at it and said ‘we’ll be this far ahead by this stage of the season.’

“It’s turned out really well, there’s no denying that. It’s a good gap. But there are still 27 points there. If we were 14 points ahead with 15 on the table then it’s a different proposition. Right now there are still enough points left and we’ve got to maintain our focus and our consistency.

“I think being 14 points clear is a hell of a marker. I don’t mean that in an arrogant way, I’m just being honest. We’re 14 points clear because we deserve to be, having played well."

Warburton reiterated his desire to sign five permanent players in the summer, plus a few loans if they money is there. We will get to that later.

It is the Rangers manager’s view that the lack of cash in Scottish football is going to make promotion not so much a leap but a small step up. Celtic, Aberdeen and Hearts are well ahead of the rest, although the likes of Dundee, the Highland clubs won’t fear this Rangers squad as it stands.

And while it's ridiculous to predict what will happen with concrete certainty, chances are Rangers will be more than just okay.

“I am not being rude in any way, but I don’t see the gap,” said Warburton. “Alan Stubbs and Peter Houston have said it - the gap between the Championship to Premiership is not big.

“Down south it’s huge because of the financial disparity with hundreds of millions of pounds going around the top fight. It’s a huge ask for teams going up to compete with the likes of Manchester United and Manchester City, Arsenal, Spurs and Chelsea.

“I don’t know where we would be in the Premiership, it’s all supposition. We are a young team and, don’t forget, we brought in 11 players in the summer. We are only seven or so months in to our development. We know our philosophy and what we want, but we are still raw.

“It would naive to think you can go against established teams like Aberdeen, Celtic and Hearts, who have battle-hardened squads in Europe as well as the Premiership."

When asked his opinion of Scottish football’s top flight, Warburton added: “I didn’t know what to expect of the Premiership when I came in. I always look at it with my Rangers head on – how do we compare?

"If you are slightly below your best or ill-prepared in any way then you’ll pay the price. In England, when there was one or two not on it, that was your opening. At Brentford you’d see a couple didn’t fancy it. But up here everyone is 100 percent committed.”

And so we get to money and what Warburton will have to play with during the next transfer window. He insisted the talks with Dave King are frequent and fruitful. But will they bear fruit?

“We have made it very clear what we think it will take to get the players,” said Warburton. “If we are talking £75m then it’s not going to happen. But the communication lines are excellent. There’s no problem with that and we are in a good place.

“Our job is to always ask. If the manager stops asking then the club’s in trouble.

“I don’t want to be rude but I’d rather let them think, ‘not him again’ because you have to keep pushing. We’ll go and say these are the players who can add value, experience or potential we need. One or two senior players, one or two in that 23-24 bracket, a bright young talent. That type of thing to get the balance right."