MARK Warburton last night stressed a photograph of several Rangers players on a night out with Ibrox signing target Scott Allan was not taken following the Petrofac Training Cup win over Hibs on Saturday.
A picture of David Templeton, Nicky Clark and Andy Halliday with Allan in a Glasgow city centre bar was posted on social media website Twitter over the weekend.
The snap fuelled mounting speculation the Hibs midfielder would be joining the trio at Rangers before the close of the summer transfer window next month – despite his manager Alan Stubbs reiterating he is not for sale.
Rangers had two bids of £175,000 and £225,000 for the former Scotland Under-21 internationalist rejected by their Ladbrokes Championship rivals last week and are preparing to make another offer for him.
The 23-year-old, who is out of contract at the end of the 2015/16 season when he can leave for nothing and who is a boyhood supporter of the Glasgow club, is believed to be keen on the move.
Warburton has repeatedly declined to talk publicly about his interest in the central midfielder, the Championship Player of the Year last season, out of respect to Hibs and last week defended how Rangers had conducted their business.
Asked about the photograph at the Petrofac Training Cup draw at Hampden yesterday, he said: “I would suggest that research and homework should be done in that regard.”
Sources close to Allan, who has been friends with Halliday for years, confirmed the picture was taken after the end of last season - and not in the wake of the 6-2 win Rangers recorded over Hibs in Edinburgh on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Warburton confirmed that John Eustace, the experienced midfielder who has been on trial at Murray Park this summer and is trying to win a full-time deal with Rangers, has recovered from a knee injury.
He said: “He’ll be with the group out on the training ground later this week, which is a good sign. There is no deadline for him.
“I’m always looking at options to improve the quality we have and John would do that but, as you saw against Burnley and Hibs, we already have choices in those positions.”
Meanwhile, Warburton has stressed his side will attempt to win every competition they enter after being drawn to play League 1 club Ayr United at Somerset Park next month in the second round of the Petrofac Training Cup.
Warburton said: “Any competition you go into you want to win it. From our point of view, we have new players coming to the club and you want to win games because winning becomes a habit. It’s an old saying but it’s true.
“I want to win every single game, as every team should do, so we’ll be prepared as best as we can be for every match that we play. It’s important, having entered the tournament, that we win it or, at least, go as far as we possibly can in it. Our aim is to collect the trophy.
“It also offers all of our players the chance to be involved. It’s not about an 11 or 14, it’s about using your entire squad and making sure that every single player, at any given time, is in shape to play for you.
“That’s how it should work so we’ll keep it lean and keep it tight and make sure that everyone feels part of it.”
He added: “I don’t know a great deal about Ayr, but I will do by the time we play them. We look forward to it. We have an idea about them because we played them in a closed-door game but, as it was for us, it was in the early part of their pre-season preparations. I’m sure they’ll have come together as a team so we’ll need to put in a certain level of performance.”
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