MARK WARBURTON will only allow goalkeeper Matt Gilks to leave Rangers this month if he can sign a suitable replacement to take his place in the Ibrox squad.
Gilks made the move north of the border in the summer following his exit from Burnley but he has failed to oust Wes Foderingham as the first choice in Warburton’s side. The 34-year-old has yet to make a Premiership appearance for Rangers but featured five times in the Betfred Cup, including in the semi-final defeat to Celtic.
Championship side Wigan Athletic have been credited with an interest in Gilks but Warburton is in no rush to sanction a deal at present after allowing midfielder Matt Crooks to join Scunthorpe United on loan.
“There’s a club looking at Matt,” he said. “He is an outstanding goalkeeper who trains so well every single day. He’s important to us. It’s no coincidence that Wes is playing at the level he’s playing. It’s because of the competition he’s receiving from Matt.
“Goalkeeper is a unique position. If you do change your goalkeeper, you have to put him in for five or six games. You can’t put him in for one game and pull him out again. That’s a little bit different to the outfield players.
“Wes has been outstanding. So Matt has been frustrated but he trains so well every single day. He pushes every day and if he’s called upon he’ll be outstanding.
“As long as we have cover in place [we would let him go]. Our job is to make sure we have options available that we can access. What we can’t ever afford to do is leave ourselves short.
“We can’t have a player going out and leaving us exposed. So we have to make sure we have the targets lined up. People like Matt Crooks, Matt Gilks, they want to play football. That’s their job.”
It has been a productive transfer window so far for Warburton as he has added Emerson Hyndman and Jon Toral to his squad in recent days. The midfield pair have arrived from Bournemouth and Arsenal respectively and could make their debuts against RB Leipzig tomorrow afternoon after agreeing loan deals until the end of the campaign.
Having lost the services of Joey Barton, Niko Kranjcar and Jordan Rossiter in recent months, Warburton was keen to add to his central options and Toral has cut short a stint with Granada to be reunited with his former Brentford boss.
“We wanted to get the two midfielders in and we’re delighted we’ve been able to do that,” Warburton said. “They will add real quality as we saw in training this morning. They are good characters.
“Jon is someone I know well, he’s a top guy. He’s very mature and his a great outlook on life. He’s a very talented boy and we’re delighted to have him.
“We had him at Brentford and so we know what he can deliver. We needed someone to replace Niko and provide that creative spark, Jon will do that because he takes great care of the football.”
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