MARK WARBURTON expressed his sympathy for Ronny Deila before and after the Scottish Cup semi-final last weekend. The Hampden tie will be the first and last time that they meet as managers after it was confirmed that Ronny will leave Celtic at the end of the season.

It will be a summer of change at Parkhead as Celtic gear up for Rangers’ return to the Premiership but it won’t affect how Mark goes about his business at Ibrox.

In the words of the manager, with the greatest respect, it doesn’t matter what Celtic do. He has got a big task at Rangers to get us challenging for the Premiership as soon as possible and that is all he can look at. It doesn’t matter who Celtic appoint or what players they bring in.

He can’t do anything about that. It doesn’t matter who the next manager is and we will have to wait and see who the Celtic board decide to go for.

Mark will have his sights on a handful of players that will come in and help us challenge Celtic next season. It is the Rangers squad he has to look at, not the Celtic manager.

He will want the strongest possible Rangers team on the park, no matter what is going on at Parkhead. Worrying about what other clubs are doing is not his way of thinking.

He has been talking to the chairman, talking to frank McParland and looking at players and all that preparation will not change because Celtic have changed their manager.

He will be looking for the best possible players to come in and improve Rangers and he knows what is needed to put us in shape for a shot at the title next term.