Mark Warburton ready to develop the next Tottenham star at Rangers

One of the players poised to become the next star out of Tottenham's academy is wanted by perhaps the most prestigious Scottish club in history. Rangers FC manager Mark Warburton wants to bring Spurs' young midfielder Harry Winks to Ibrox on loan for the 2015-16 season.

According to the Daily Record, Warburton is keen to improve his side as they're set to participate in the Scottish Championship this season and has identified the 19 year old central midfielder Winks as a strong candidate for a season-long loan.

Harry Winks is a promising young central midfielder and Tottenham academy graduate who will (spoiler!) certainly make our list of Tottenham Hotspur Prospect Rankings. He made his Tottenham first team debut in the Europa League at home against FK Partizan last season and got a nice run-out in Spurs' post-season tour to Malaysia and Australia. He's unlikely to have an impact on the first team next year, but has shown enough last season that a loan is very likely.

Did you catch that, though? Rangers are in the Scottish SECOND division. If you've forgotten, Rangers were in deep financial trouble a few years ago and were actually wound up and liquidated as a club before reforming under a (slightly) new name. The new team started playing two years ago in Scotland's fourth division, the lowest level of Scottish football, and have been climbing the ladder back to the Scottish Premier League ever since, which is why you haven't heard much about Rangers in international football for a while.

Scottish football was pretty crap even before Rangers' self-immolation. If Rangers were still the Rangers of old and competing for SPL titles, this would be a pretty exciting loan opportunity for Winks. Rangers in the second division?  Ehhhhh. What this loan does have going for it is twofold: 1) Winks would be playing in front of 50k (still) rabid Scottish football fans at Ibrox, and 2) he'd be playing for Mark Warburton, who last season was managing Brentford and who helped turn on-loan Alex Pritchard into one of the most exciting young players on Tottenham's roster. Warburton is known for bringing through young players when they're good enough and giving them opportunities to play and develop.

Warburton and Winks have gotten the nod of approval from Spurs legend Gary Mabbutt, who thinks that this would be an outstanding place for Winks to land next season. I'm starting to agree. The football may not be of the highest level, but Warburton has strong ties to Spurs and had Brentford playing a style of football that's close to "the Tottenham way." If Warburton can develop Winks in the same way that he helped develop Pritchard, it'd be a nice step forward in the young midfielder's journey to the Tottenham first team.

Not a done deal yet, but I wouldn't be sad at all if this happens.