MARK Warburton wants Rangers to get back to the days when they were providing a regular raft of players for the Scotland squad. Warburton was at Wembley last week to watch Lee Wallace start against England and hoped the full-back’s display will prove an incentive for more of Rangers’ Scots to push their way into the international set-up. Barrie McKay was involved earlier in the campaign under Gordon Strachan, and Warburton believes there are more capable of commanding a spot.
“I went to the game at Wembley to watch Lee and I thought in a positive way he gave Gordon a selection problem,” said Warburton. “Lee has been patient. He’s probably forsaken his international career with Rangers going down and back up again but I thought he stepped in well. He used the ball well, he never hid, posed an attacking threat and was always available. I thought he was tremendous. I’m delighted for Lee to step up to that stage and perform to that level.
“His performance has to give hope to the others. The likes of Jason Holt, Andy Halliday and Danny Wilson have got to be pushing really hard. I got a bit frustrated when the Scotland squad was announced a few weeks ago and someone asked if Lee was up to it. He’s the Rangers captain. So of course he is. A few years ago the Scotland squad was packed with Rangers players so that’s something we have to get back to. But it’s a building process.”
Warburton describes Wallace as a “football junkie” and is already tipping him for a move into management when the full-back hangs up his boots.
“He’s very self-critical and does that every day here,” he added. “In training he speaks really well, like a true Rangers captain. He makes demands of the players and tells them what he thinks and they have a lot of respect for him. They see their captain going to that environment [in Wembley] and performing at that level. So he rightly commands respect. He’s a football junkie. He watches a lot of games and coaches his own team. There’s no doubt he’s got a bright future in the game once his playing career ends, although that’s still a long way away yet.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel