Parallel Universe

Photo from Evening Times

It’s been a grim week to be a Rangers fan. The team have hit a slump and to be honest I think most of us saw it coming from a mile off.

The manager Mark Warburton is getting it tight from the support who quite frankly have had enough of the below par performances we’ve had to endure this season.

Warburton deserves the stick he’s getting. No queston. Deficiencies in the team are so blatantly obvious to everybody that it’s now become a major concern that the manager seems either oblivious to these failings or incapable of resolving the issues this team has.

Rangers this season have managed to score an average of 1.1 goals per league game, while conceding approximately 1 goal a game in the process. That’s not good enough and never will be.

Not scoring enough goals and conceding the same type of goal on a weekly basis suggests that Mark Warburton and his players aren’t learning from the mistakes they  continue to make.

Last week’s humiliation at Tynecastle was a watershed moment for Rangers fans. Horrendous goals lost with what appeared to be a lack of fight and hunger set the alarm bells ringing for all of us. The result on Saturday didn’t do anything for the mood of the rank and file either. 3 games against Ross County and 3 draws is simply unacceptable.

It’s the lack of progress on the park that’s put the guy under pressure. Too many draws this season and what can only be described as horrific away statistics have led to people’s patience snapping.

Ultimately the football manager carries the can. That’s the way of it and always has been. His system simply doesn’t work, the 4-3-3 formation he employs means his players get exposed time and time again, which has led to frustration, with most folk agreeing that Warburton is either too stubborn or incredibly naive tactically.

For me he’s blinkered by certain players. Keirnan, Tavernier and Halliday have had really poor seasons and to continue with them week in, week out, has niggled away at the support to the point where his management is being seriously questioned.

27 points behind and now in third place in the league. Simply not good enough. Particularly when Aberdeen and Hearts have been so inconsistent. If Aberdeen had shown the same form as last season we’d be miles off the pace in even attempting to finish 2nd.

I suppose we should be thankful for small mercies.

The thought that keeps comimg back to me though is fundamental to our dilemma. It’s not good enough and we all know it, but have the Rangers board backed Mark Warburton with proper financial support in order to build a team capable of a challenge?

Absolutely not, in my opinion.

He should have been capable of building a team that scored more goals. He should have been able to stop the continual leaks in the defence and he should have seen that the team needs a creative midfielder to break opponents down.

Did he get enough money to do that?

Debatable. Some will say yes, some would disagree. Barton, Kranjcar and Garner along with a host of others were brought in to resolve the issues and strengthen for this season.

That’s where I question whether he’s been backed or not. About £4 million Warburton has been given in transfer fees since he took the job. It’s hardly what you would call a major investment in the team.

He’s made mistakes, no question, but when you’re buying from the lower tiers of English football then you’ll get lower league English players.

His strategy should be questioned, but not on social media while bringing his daughter into it. His scouting and signing policy is dubious at best, but then so is this board’s policy of pretending to over invest in the football department.

£4 million over 4 transfer windows buys you exactly what we’ve got. A team valued at £4 million. Nothing more, nothing less.

Bang average team with bang average players. Well, I’m sorry but I dont want to compete with Aberdeen, Hearts and St. Johnstone to finish best of the rest.  I mean, we could finish 40 points behind Celtic this season!  When did that ever become acceptable to Rangers or its supporters? Simply put, it isn’t.

I’ve always thought that in order to win the league all you have to do is guarantee to be better than the rest. Then the 4 games against our city rivals become cup finals.

To do such a thing costs serious money.

The wage bill is £10 million. It should be more than enough in comparison to the rest of the competition to finish 2nd. That’s why the manager’s getting pelters.

Is it enough to blast the rest of the league out the water though? No it isn’t.

So we find ourselves in a catfight for 2nd place. One we most definitely aren’t guaranteed to win.

Our players are no better than Aberdeen or Hearts. They probably should be for the salaries they receive but they aren’t.

I want to know what happened to the promises made. The most pertinent one here is the “treble the wage bill, perhaps quadruple it, depending on what Celtic do.”

That kind of investment would’ve seen us challenging for the title. The manager has flaws, we all know that but I’m pretty sure if he could deal in a more lucrative transfer market,  he’d be more than capable of bringing in a higher calibre of player.

We all know Dave King’s bluster has turned out to be empty rhetoric. The man’s incapable of telling the truth at times and not helped himself or the other board members by promising moonbeams and delivering so little.

When you look at the finances at Rangers it makes for grim reading. Making losses and surviving on loans.

I see virtually no difference now compared to what was happening 2 years ago when they took control of the club. The one major difference is that the support have backed them. Backed them with their cash and done all they can and more to help the club in any way it can.

When you consider the turnover at the last accounts was £22 million in comparison to £16.5 million when they took over, then add on the extra 15 thousand season tickets the fans have bought in those accounts, what exactly have they been doing to bring revenue in?

This years accounts will see that revenue increase, due to tv monies, more season tickets, prize money etc. Not one of those reasons are because of this board. The simple fact is it’s due to the team’s success last season, nothing else.

Revenue will increase but none of its due to King or the Parks. Its down to the fans and the team.

Two years of blaming anything and everything but no sign of serious investment. What are they actually doing to help their manager build a team capable of sustaining a challenge?

The bottom line is most of us see nothing. More loans to see us through to the end of the season, then what?

Seriously, then what happens?

The manager will likely go and a new man brought in but are they going to give him the same kind of budget to build his team?

If that’s the case then expect more of the same and the next manager won’t be able to make any impact on the top of the league either.

So, ultimately for me it comes down to the parallels between board and team. What’s happening on the park is only mirroring whats happening off it.

The scrutiny our manager is being put under (justifiably, in my opinion) comes with the territory. You don’t get away with anything in such a demanding position, neither should this Rangers board.

Demand the same scrutiny. Demand the transparency they promised. Demand to know their plans for the future.

It’s your club and next month sees many things coming to a head; be vigilant and demand to know where our club is heading.

Craig Whyte is up in court, the Ashley fiasco also. The Supreme Court will hear the HMRC BTC as well.

What happens if none of these trials/hearings go our way?  Do our board have a plan to move us forward or is it a 7 year plan that relies on the fans to dig deep time and again while the club and team struggles by, mired in mediocrity?

I seriously doubt the fans will accept that so act now and put this board under the same scutiny Mark Warburton’s being subjected to. Otherwise Celtic won’t be on another planet, they’ll be in an entirely different universe.