The clock appears to be winding down on Mark Warburton’s time in the Rangers dugout. The attack dogs in the media and on social media platforms have been unleashed and Warburton is growing in pariah status among the Ibrox legions.
Those of us who saw this coming a mile off are taking no pleasure from it. The Warburton era was an exercise in pointlessness. Yes, the guy got us where others could not i.e. over the hurdle of promotion from the Championship, but his football visionary reputation was a rope of sand that was bound to unravel in the trenches of Scottish Premiership battles. For all that, Warburton made a decent fist of making Rangers the best of the rest – no mean feat against the likes of Aberdeen and Hearts. However, the lack of consistency his team has shown produced a mounting sense of unease among the fans.
This week’s crushing defeat against a Hearts team cobbled together in days by a manager who, like Warburton, is having to overcome strong scepticism regarding his own visionary status, is likely the tipping point for Warbs’ departure. It was cringeworthy stuff reading threads on certain Rangers forums prior to the start of this season asking how many points we would win 55 by. Such was the faith and adulation Warburton elicited from many fans. Those of us with a football brain looked on with astonishment.
Several months into the season and those fans are calling for their messiah to go. It can be argued which is more shameful – the fickleness of those fans or their unrealistic expectations to begin with. Either way, Mark Warburton will likely pay the price. However, as I pointed out in a previous blog, he has not done a bad job so far of hitting the target set him by his Chairman i.e. a top two finish. It is still very possible.
Yet the plight of Warburton is truthfully but the smokescreen. Whether he stays as manager or falls on his sword, the real issue is that Rangers cannot be expected to compete in the SPFL top flight without significant investment. So the questions must be asked of the club’s custodians: When and from where will we see such investment?
Being perpetually second – at best, I hasten to add – is completely unacceptable to any person with Rangers running through their veins. If this is part of the club philosophy or business model, it must be eradicated. Rangers don’t do runners-up.
And that is my point. Mark Warburton’s appointment was only ever going to be a stopgap and one made due to serious under-funding. The problem is that under-funding fuels lack of ambition and vice versa. There comes a point where there is no will or resource to seriously compete anymore and acceptance of mediocrity creeps in. Surely this board want more for Rangers than an eternal bridesmaid role?
Rangers fans want answers. They want to know what is happening in terms of investment in the team and stadium. PR mind games in the media are not going to cut it.
Personally, I don’t want to see Mark Warburton cut loose as a scapegoat for all the club’s failings. That is not the Rangers way. His own shortcomings have perhaps been exposed but the reality is that the woeful inaction during the latest transfer window is surely a matter for Warburton’s bosses to answer for.
As I have said previously, I don’t see the gap between us and Celtic as the yawning chasm some claim it to be. But it could widen alarmingly unless investment is procured.
Failure, mediocrity and lack of ambition are unacceptable anywhere around Ibrox. The manager must not carry the can for things he has little control over. My understanding is the relationship between Warburton and the board is increasingly fragile. That being the case, they should either back him or sack him. But one thing is certain: whether they ship Warburton or keep him, the onus is on the directors to provide what the club needs going forward.
It seems a long time since Rangers fans were singing about the manager wearing a magic hat. Now it is over to the money men to come up with some financial alchemy.
If they don’t, there won’t be much for Gers fans to sing about for quite some time…
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Hello
Your post does little credit to Mark Warburton.
* It makes little or no criticism of the cabal running the Club’s affairs, headed by the conspicuously uninventive duo of King and Murray; in particular it does not lay blame for the absence of promised funding to the level of “whatever it takes” championed by King in pre- and early post-takeover days. * Yes, Cathro put together a team in short order but you fail to mention the role played by Craig Levein in the first team affairs at Hearts.
Overall, your article gives the impression of siding with those now behaving so unreasonably towards Mark Warburton. I am disappointed, and would be surprised if that disappointment were not shared by others.
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Where were you when we were fighting the King takeover? And predicting what is now happening?
Warburton has made a decent fist of things as I noted in the blog. But he is not helping himself by making poor choices. And he was definitely not appointed to be a success.
We all knew it would take more than this season too start really competing but trouble now seems to be that they just cant get any sort of consistency when they play.How many times is that they have lost an early goal and even worse when its at home too. Then we get players talking every week in what they will be doing too teams because they have learned”WHAT” I may ask now.
A reasonable article but could have used some suggestions of where the investment might come from. You have wasted countless millions in the past 4 years without reward. I can’t see any responsible investor being willing to waste more.
Bill I know that you have a personnal crusade against child abuse and rightly so ,so I was wondering if you and all your fellow crusaders are disgusted and repulsed by Chelsea FC £60,000 pay off to a victim of child abuse for his silence , I would imagine that you and your fellow crusaders will be carrying out a public campaign against this club and its followers .
I am sure you condemn the historic child abuse connected with your own club. Yes?
Absolutely bang on the money. Clever, understated, cunning, intelligent. Well done 👏👏👏
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Agree with most of that but very few Rangers fans thought we would win the league this season! Yes you will always get a few Yong laddies spouting rubbish on Follow Follow or Rangers Media but I can assure you they were a tiny minority who thought we would win title 55 by X amount of points.
It didn’t help, Stewart, that some “Experts” in the press were taking about doubles and trebles!! Whiskey yes, but trophies, never!