MARK WARBURTON hopes to complete the majority of his summer shopping by the time Rangers return to pre-season action this summer.

The Ibrox boss has already clinched moves for Accrington Stanley pair Matt Crooks and Josh Windass and is in the market for half-a-dozen new recruits ahead of Rangers’ Premiership title challenge next term.

Rangers will hope to round off their campaign with Scottish Cup success when they face Hibernian at Hampden on Saturday, May 21 but there is plenty of work to be done in the following weeks.

Warburton said: “We’ve always tried to get our permanent signings in as early as possible to bed them in knowing any EPL loans will come last week in July, first couple of days in August.

“That’s how it always works. They go away with their first teams, they’ll travel wherever they go whether it’s Singapore, Malaysia or North America, then if we do get them it’ll be that last week in July. So get your permanents in as early as possible.

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“We don’t work like that (with a firm budget), we go on a case by case basis and put our players forward and why we think they add value and quality to the squad. Then we go from there.

“Up until now we’ve had great support. Conversations have been very positive, communication lines between Stewart (Robertson) and Andrew (Dickson) have been first class so we are in a good place right now.”

The Light Blues squad will report back to Murray Park on June 18 and will spend time in America over the summer before a potential crack at the Europa League or the first domestic action next term.

And boss Warburton hopes to have as many new faces on board as quickly as possible to ensure his side are up to speed ahead of the big kick-off.

He said: “We have been working for weeks and weeks. The groundwork has been going on probably since the January window closed to try and identify the targets, the likelihood of securing them, what might it cost, what might prevent us, what could be the curveball.

“You can be right down to the wire on a signing and it falls down at the last minute. You see it time and time again.

“We have been at medicals with players when suddenly they have gone, there is a copy of the paper on the chair where he was and he is up the M6. That is how it works.

“So we have to make sure that all the work is done and we get them over the line. Ideally, we report back here on June 18, and we would want as many of our permanents in as possible by then if we can do that.”