Warburton speaks about Barton move

Mark Warburton spoke of his hope to secure Joey Barton's signature as he looks to the 33-year old to lead his young side to a title at the first time of asking next season.

Speaking at Hampden ahead of Saturday's Scottish Cup final with Hibs also revealed that the ex-Man City & Newcastle midfielder's signing doesn't hang on lifting Rangers' first Scottish Cup since 2009.

He said: "Joey is a player who will have many, many suitors I'm sure. Our job is to sell the opportunity being at Rangers represents. We're never going to compete with the wages down south, that's an obvious point to highlight, but if we can show what we are as a club with the support and the history we have here and what our project and aspirations are then hopefully any player would find that appealing."

"He was delighted to come up to Glasgow last weekend, he was great company, he's experienced, combative and an intelligent footballer. All I can hope is we push forward and get it over the line."

When asked is the deal was reliant on Rangers securing European football next season Warburton said, "No, not at all. The cup is a bonus for us. Talking to players, it's about what our plans are as a club, what we're looking to do and want to achieve and what their role is. Players want to know how they figure in the plans for the club."

"If you give clarity to that then you're in a good place with the players. Hopefully, we've done a good job and we'll soon find out. (Europe) will help; obviously we could do with one or two more to help with numbers due to our commitments, but we're a big club and one look at Ibrox tells you the size and stature of the club.