MARK Warburton, the Rangers manager, last night stressed he remains fully committed to completing his rebuilding project at Ibrox despite fresh interest from England.
Warburton, who lead Brentford into the Sky Bet Championship play-offs last season, has been linked with the vacant managerial positions at both Fulham and QPR once again this month.
However, the 53-year-old, whose side is two points clear at the top of the second tier table after winning 12 of their first 13 league matches, reiterated that he has no intention of leaving.
The Englishman believes that, despite being able to pay their manager a higher salary, few clubs in his homeland can match the rich history and fanatical support at Rangers.
He also revealed he would be unable to move on after bringing in no fewer than 11 new players – including nine from south of the border – to Glasgow during the summer.
“The focus is here with Rangers," he said. "This is a massive club and we are six months into the project. You can’t ask players to commit and then don’t commit yourself.
“In football, and in any business, you live and die by your decisions. It’s as simple as that. If you make the right decision, great, if you make a bad one then you pay the price. I made the choice to come to a fantastic club.
“We are six months into this project and all I can say is look at Rangers history, come to a home game. That’s what I say to my friends, come to Murray Park and then tell me what you think.”
Warburton added: “Friends do ask what I am doing up here in Scotland, especially the younger ones who don’t know about the history of Rangers.
“We had a couple of guys from Brentford come up and they were blown away by the home game against Hibs. They couldn’t believe the support. There were 50,000 fans and there was a great atmosphere and build-up to the game. That is the only way to get it across to them.”
Meanwhile, Warburton has expressed hope referee George Salmond takes appropriate action if his Rangers players are subjected to any bad challenges when they play Livingston in the Ladbrokes Championship tomorrow.
He was incensed by the physical treatment his charges received when they played Mark Burchill’s men in the Petrofac Training Cup quarter-final at Ibrox last month.
Nathan Oduwa, the on-loan Spurs winger, was the victim of a bad challenge by Kieran Gibbons after just 12 seconds of that match and Declan Gallagher was also booked for a foul on him later in the first half.
“We just sort of do what we are able to do and you hope that other matters are covered,” said Warburton. “You hope match officials apply the rules in the right way and if a foul comes in the first minute or the 91st minute they deal with it. There’s no difference in what minute the offence might have occurred.
“Nathan has learned from the first game. It has been well documented that it was a shocking tackle, but it has gone now, it is history.”
Elsewhere, Warburton has revealed that John Eustace, the former Derby County midfielder who has been on trial at Murray Park since the summer in the hope of being offered a contract, has returned to England to attend to a family matter. “He’s dealing with a domestic illness,” he said.
Warburton declined to comment on an incident involving Nicky Clark at Queen Street Station in Glasgow city centre last week that resulted in the Rangers striker spending a night in police cells. He said: “That is an internal issue.”
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