Rangers could turn to Philippe Senderos after missing out on Joleon Lescott
Rangers manager Mark Warburton could turn to Philippe Senderos in his search for a fourth centre-back after Joleon Lescott's Ibrox move fell through.
Warburton had expressed optimism on Thursday over the chance of signing Lescott, and the Aston Villa defender subsequently visited Glasgow.
But the move collapsed on Friday morning, with Rangers citing family reasons as the reason Lescott will not be signing for the club.
Rangers are still on course to sign Preston striker Joe Garner in a B#1.5million deal, but it is unlikely to be completed before Saturday's Ladbrokes Premiership clash with Motherwell.
And they have another option to complete their summer transfer business in Senderos. The 31-year-old former Arsenal defender is a free agent and has been training with the club this week.
Warburton, who will take an unchanged squad into the weekend's game, spoke of the former Fulham and Villa player as a serious option.
"I can't speak highly enough of Philippe Senderos," Warburton said. "He hadn't been training with a team for a few weeks but his level of fitness is outstanding. His CV is well documented but his level of fitness and the way he has fitted into the group has been first class. He has dealt with training all week effortlessly.
"We have to look at a number of options and I've been very, very impressed by Philippe. Obviously he won't be involved at the weekend. He is going back to Geneva for a couple of days, but we are very pleased with what we have seen.
"But, again, we have to make sure we look at all our options and treat people the right way as well. Players want honest feedback and we will always do that to the players. That leaves us in good stead if we do it that way."
Meanwhile, Warburton has dismissed Motherwell boss Mark McGhee's assertion that his team should be closer to Rangers than Celtic because of the gap in levels of spending between the Glasgow clubs.
"It's a game of opinions," Warburton said. "That's the beauty of the game, that's why we love it so much. That's Mark's opinion, mine may differ slightly, but we will see after Saturday."
McGhee had said he believes his side have a better chance of getting something at Ibrox than they did at Celtic Park last week.
Motherwell were thrashed 5-0 by Celtic in the Betfred Cup but McGhee feels there is an opportunity to claim a result against Rangers after creating a series of good chances against Warburton's men in a 2-0 cup loss last month.
McGhee said: "Their ability to sign players is different from ours, regardless of the noises that come out of there about their circumstances. So it's always going to be difficult for the rest of us to compete with that.
"But they have not quite got to the stage of signing the sort of players Celtic are signing for millions and millions. So therefore we feel as if we should still be in touch with them, in a way that maybe we've no right to think we are with Celtic.
"So we can go there believing if we play really well then we can get something.
"We played them here and it was a clash of styles in a sense but it was a fairly even game and we felt a little unlucky to lose the way we did. So we know we can go there and give them a game."
Steven Hammell should feature for Motherwell after returning to training following a calf strain. but Carl McHugh is still ruled out by his head knock.
Source: PAR
