Rangers captain Lee Wallace says that manager Mark Warburton is destined for the English Premier League, but he has begged his boss to finish what he started at Ibrox before heading back down south.

Wallace capped off a fine season as he picked up the Championship player of the year award at Sunday’s PFA Scotland awards dinner. The defender is adamant though that the credit for the turnaround in Rangers’ fortunes should lie squarely with the man who picked up the manager of the year award at the same event.

If Rangers can persuade him to stay, Wallace believes that the club may be on the brink of something special.

He said: “Once he’s had four or five years with us, winning the top flight and being successful at the top level, bringing European football back to Ibrox, I think he is destined for the very top.

“He is a top manager and a top human being. It’s gone well this season and I just hope he stays for the foreseeable future.

“I know he is ambitious. He made his ambitions clear on his first day in the job. We are nearly there with those ambitions but a whole new set will be unleashed next season in the top flight. We are a competitive side and second is last for us. That’s just how Rangers are. The manager has got to grips with Rangers, what the club stands for and its history.

“That blend is great and I can only see the club moving forward, the manager moving forward and the boys all moving forward. The manager will want the best possible silverware for this club.

“Let’s hope for the sake of the club he stays. We are really fortunate to have him. He’s got a great style of play, his team has a DNA and an identity and teams of the very highest level will be coming calling. Our gaffer is going to be sticking out for those kind of teams and those kind of chairmen who want that type of winning, dominant football.

“Let’s just hope that that (interest) continues to happen. The manager has said before that when it’s not happening then there is a problem. Whether it’s a manager or a player performing you are going to be linked – but hopefully it stops at a link and he stays here.

“You see on Sky Sports with the odds on the right hand side that the manager is being linked for jobs. It’s great that he’s getting recognition. But I speak for the players and the fans when I say I hope we keep him and he stays here for many years to come. We want him to stay because we are going on to something special.”

Wallace’s mood as we approach the end of the domestic football calendar could hardly contrast more with this time last season. He admits that the shambolic defeat to Motherwell in last season’s playoffs had left him and his teammates at rock bottom.

“I could not have dreamed what lay ahead when we left Fir Park last year,” he said. “We were in a right low place at that time. The bus ride back afterwards was the worst of my career as the squad went back to Murray Park to get their cars.

“Going on holiday afterwards, there was a helpless feeling. You can’t do anything, that’s you finished for the season so you can’t rectify it. You were away from your teammates and that particular group was breaking up.

“That was the last day we were with that group of players and it was a sad ending. I had good football friends and good teammates and it was a horrible way for it all to end. Nobody could have dreamt what was about to happen. But once I heard the manager speaking for the first time, that was when we started to dream again. Slowly, we got to realise that we could go on and have a very good season. It’s night and day."

To ensure that they don’t go into the summer with a sour taste again though, Rangers will have to rectify the patchy form displayed since the Scottish Cup semi-final win over Celtic in time for the final against Hibs.

The last match they won over 90 minutes was the Petrofac Cup final win over Peterhead at the start of April, but Wallace says that Warburton has a plan to make sure the Rangers players will be back to their sharpest after their current three-week layoff.

“We are aware of all these stats,” he said. “We have gone a goal behind in the last three or four games. We are more aware of that than anyone else. We are more critical of ourselves more than anyone else. But we are not going to let this period cloud over anything we have achieved as a team this season.

“It would be too easy to be down in the dumps and negative. Yes the results are hurtful but it’s not been like us. We haven’t hit our levels but we need to learn. We are maybe being questioned on those fronts but it’s a challenge we welcome and one we will meet head on.

“We’ve got full trust in the manager. We’ve got a three-week plan. We are not going to change our approach."