Rangers’ Mark Warburton plays down return of Old Firm derbies

The global appeal of a meeting between Celtic and Rangers is not sufficient for Mark Warburton to shift his focus. The Rangers manager says his key aspiration lies in preparing his team for their return to the top flight next season rather than presiding over a victory over the other half of the Old Firm in tomorrow's Scottish Cup semi-final.

Rangers sealed promotion to the Premiership this month, ending an absence since 2012. Perhaps because that had been a formality for so long the attention of supporters had already turned towards this weekend’s Hampden Park encounter. Warburton has no qualms about installing Celtic as the favourites.

Derogatory

“If you were a neutral, you’d think Celtic must have a stronger squad,” Warburton said.

“They are top of the Premiership, they’ve been in Europe for a number of years and benefited accordingly, so they must have a stronger squad. That is not a derogatory statement by anyone, that is just a fact. They’ve got a squad packed with international players.

” We have played to a consistent level of performance all season and we’ve got our rewards in terms of winning the league. Winning the Petrofac Cup [last weekend] was a bonus of course. So we are in good shape.

“But the strongest squad undoubtedly is Celtic right now. Our job, our bigger-picture job, is to make sure that on August 2nd, when the season starts, we’ve closed the gap. That is the key.

“This game is great and I’m not in any way reducing its significance. It’s a cup semi-final. But the bigger picture has to be us gearing up for the new season.”

Targets

Warburton believes Rangers fans should therefore be realistic with their own targets. “I hope so,” the manager said. “We’re not going into this game with any negativity. We want to go and win the game, absolutely. That will never change.

“But all we are saying is, there is a bigger picture, there is a gap there. There has to be a gap, Rangers have been out of the picture for years. Our job is to close that gap.”

Warburton, who revealed he had sought the advice of the Rangers legends John Greig and Walter Smith, will be without his top scorer, Martyn Waghorn. The former Wigan striker, who has 28 goals this season, has failed to recover from a knee injury.

Celtic’s manager, Ronny Deila, confidently stated his team were “the best in the country”. He will make a late decision on the fitness of the Danish the centre back Erik Sviatchenko. Guardian service