Warburton admits Oduwa is on borrowed time

While negotiations are underway to extend Arsenal playmaker Gedion Zelalem’s loan from the initial six months to full season as agreed early on with Emirates’ manager Arsene Wenger, the news is not so bright regarding Rangers’ other on-loan star from the Premier League.

While Rangers and Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham Hotspur only agreed a season-long long in the first place, faint hopes had been raised within the Rangers support that the White Hart Lane youngster, who has set Scottish football alight with his superb footwork, might either extend his loan for a further year.

There was the even more remote chance Rangers might be able to sign him permanently next summer, but manager Mark Warburton appears to have poured cold water over such an idea, admitting he is only on loan to develop as a player at Ibrox for the one season, and will ‘hopefully’ return to Spurs a better player come the end of it.

He said:

“His job is to come here and our job is to come here and make him a better player. So hopefully he goes back to Tottenham at the end of the season a better player having learned from situations such as that.”

Deep down Warburton will surely be hoping to be able to retain the English winger for longer, be it as a further loan or permanent signing, but right now such hopes appear to have been completely dashed.