MARK Warburton last night admitted he is hopeful Rangers can complete the signings of Joleon Lescott, the former England centre half, and Joe Garner, the Preston striker, imminently.
Warburton was pictured in Manchester holding talks with Lescott, who was told he can leave Aston Villa after the Birmingham club was relegated from the English Premier League last season, on social media earlier this week.
The 34-year-old defender is set to undergo a medical in Glasgow today and will be paraded as the Ibrox club’s tenth signing of the summer this afternoon if he passes it.
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Dr Tony Xia, the Chinese businessman who bought Villa back in May, confirmed on Twitter last night that the Midlands club would pay part of Lescott's wages for the next year.
Warburton also expressed confidence that the deal for Garner, the 28-year-old English centre forward who will cost Rangers around £1.5 million, will be completed soon.
Phillipe Senderos, the former Arsenal, Fulham and Villa centre back, has impressed Warburton during training at Auchenhowie this week, but it is unlikely he will be offered a deal if Lescott completes his move to Scotland.
“We are just making progress on a number of fronts,” said Warburton. “These things take time, but I hope we are very close now to completing a lot of work that has been done in a short period of time.
“We have to have options. The way the football world is right now you have to have options. Phillipe has been in and has been great with us. But there are other options as well. Right now there is progress being made. We hope it will be 24 or 48 hours.
“What we need to have is four centre halves and four strikers. That is what we need to have. We need options and strength in depth for injuries and suspensions. You saw recently when Danny (Wilson) was suspended that we had no centre half cover.”
He added: “We have to have that strength in depth. We want four centre halves, we want four centre forwards. We have options all over the park. We have to fill these two spots.
“We are making very good progress. A lot of work has gone on behind the scenes on a number of fronts so I hope very much that something can be done.
“These things are such that a guy in a pub garden takes a photograph of someone and that is the way the world works. But you have got to have options and until you get that contract signed you don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Asked about the delay in completing the signing of Garner, Warburton said: “There is always documentation, there is always an aspect that you have to make sure is right. It is nothing sinister, it is nothing other than the simple documentation process that we feel we have to go through.”
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