91Èȱ¬

Alan Kernaghan saw Mark Warburton up close at Brentford and believes the Englishman will lead Rangers to promotion next season.

Former Clyde and Dundee manager Kernaghan had a spell as caretaker at Brentford and left the club after Warburton took over as manager.

"I think it's a great appointment for Rangers," said Kernaghan when asked about his chances of success at Ibrox.

"He's a very positive person in all aspects of how he goes about his job."

Former Middlesbrough and Manchester City defender Kernaghan knows the Scottish game well after spells as a player with St Johnstone, Brechin City, Clyde, Livingston, Falkirk and Dundee.

And he believes that Warburton, who has agreed a three-year contract with Rangers, will bring a freshness the Glasgow club require after finishing third in the Scottish Championship and losing in the Premiership play-off final against Motherwell.

"It is someone coming to Scottish football with new eyes and isn't entrenched in what has gone on in Scotland before," Kernaghan told 91Èȱ¬ Scotland.

"It will be good for Rangers - a new start as such, a clean sweep of the board and new ideas will come and that is needed at Rangers at the moment."

Stuart McCall had been given the Rangers job until the end of the season after succeeding Kenny McDowall in March, but the club's new board has decided not to give the former Motherwell manager the position on a permanent basis.

Warburton is poised to be introduced to the media at Ibrox Stadium at 14.00 BST, with the 52-year-old bringing with him his assistant, David Weir, the former Rangers defender.

"He is very much hands-on," Kernaghan said about Warburton's management style. "He'll want to know everything that's going on at the club.

"He is very decisive and he's very good to work for. He is good fun but also knows his stuff."

Warburton never made it to senior football at a player, playing for Enfield and Boreham Wood in England's lower leagues, began his coaching career at Watford's youth academy and moved to Brentford in 2011.

He became manager two years later and led Brentford to promotion to the Championship, but it was announced in February that he would be leaving at the end of the season despite his side again challenging for title.

"It is more to do with the owner at Brentford, Matthew Benham, who is a very successful person in his business and wanted to bring a different sort of strategy," explained Kernaghan.

"We've all seen the film Moneyball with Brad Pitt in it about how someone brought a very strategic and very mathematical way of choosing players and put them together and won a championship in American baseball.

"That's the kind of Moneyball situation Matthew does with his stats. He has a company that deals with a lot of betting and that was the strategic way he wanted to go and Mark had issues with that."