Early riser Warburton putting the hours in at Rangers

“It is nice and peaceful as opposed to the noise when everyone is here. It is just what suits each individual. For me the early morning is the best time of the day.”

Filling the Phil Daniels role on this occasion is Mark Warburton. The diverse past of the Rangers manager has been thoroughly documented in recent months and among the many habits he picked up during his time as a city trader was a useful ability to get up with the lark. “I would get the 5.20am train, get in at 5.50am and then go home at 8pm. They had their pound of flesh,” he recalls, smiling at the memory.

There are personal circumstances that make it easier for him to get up at the crack of dawn and get in to Murray Park before everyone but the security staff and his assistant David Weir – he is staying in a hotel, with his family still down south. But having those extra hours in the day has proven to be very useful as he settles into his new role.

Warburton’s main priority will always be to ensure the first team is prepared for every challenge – they play Peterhead in the League Cup this afternoon before taking on St Mirren in their opening Ladbrokes Championship match on Friday – but he has also made it his job to ensure that everything that surrounds the squad is perfect, too.

Most managers would think coaching, motivating, selecting and encouraging a group of professional players would be more than enough work, but Warburton wants to shape all the ancillary factors that surround the squad as well. And so those solitary hours at the training ground are so far proving to be worthwhile indeed.

“For any manager or person in business it would be a mistake to walk in and make too many changes too early and miss the fact you have good quality people here,” he adds deferentially. “But our job is to come in and assess what we have, look at the processes and procedures that are in place like medical, analytical, logistical etc.

“We know what we want so if we are doing it already then fantastic. If we can tweak it fine but if we have to change it and overhaul it then that is what we do. So there have been a few changes, staff and process-wise, and we are delighted with it.

“We have been using the pre-season games to test things like travel and pre-match meals down to the last detail. That was so when the competitive season started we were ready.

“At my old club, Brentford, I used to say to Uwe Rosler that if we were sacked in the morning we had to make sure the club was in a better position than it was when we got there. That has got to be the aim for myself and Davie, to make improvements by highlighting areas of weakness or potential weakness.”

He has been impressed with what he has seen of Murray Park. “This is a Champions League facility. I don’t want to sound naïve but if you look on the website you can’t get a feel of how good this facility is.

“The layout, the quality of the pitches, it allows everyone to integrate but also for the first team to be separate. It allows the aspirational aspect where you can build up to the first-team dressing room. I love that. You get that at Real Madrid, too.”

The small details are important to Warburton as well, after he learned from experience that not everyone feels the same way.

“I would like to think that anyone who comes here as a guest will get a very warm welcome. The staff have been tremendous to me. That is important. I went to Liverpool and the first thing that happens is you are offered a cup of tea and you remember it because the people are so genuine.

“There are other places with magnificent facilities but there is no cup of tea. We played one team – no name mentioned – who had outstanding facilities but you never got a cup of tea or a hello and all I remember thinking is, ‘this is sterile’. It was nothing like the warmth of the big clubs like Arsenal, Tottenham, Liverpool, Man City. It is the warmth of welcome that matters.”