Pressure is telling on Warburton

MARK WARBURTON continues to look like a man losing his grip on things ever so slightly.

When he first took over at Rangers, in those joyful days of cantering to a league championship that involved games against part-time opposition, he made great play of the need to be respectful.

He never stopped banging on about it. It got so over the top that I suspect someone had a word in his ear and advised him to tone it down a little.

His rant at referee John Beaton after defeat at Pittodrie last week was dreadful and there is little question that his apology, of sorts, was genuine.

He is a man who appears to be struggling under the weight of expectation.

The Joey Barton situation, somehow still unresolved, hangs over him like a toxic cloud and there is a time and a place for talking about ‘dominating the football’. It is not when you have won two league games out of seven.

The recruitment policy is shaping up to be a disaster, Niko Kranjcar — yesterday’s goal notwithstanding — and Barton, the main signings, becoming millstones around Warburton’s neck as he looks increasingly to the players of last season to steady the ship.

Meanwhile, soft goals continue being conceded even though it was clear since early last year that the defence would have to be stiffened in the event of promotion.

Handling pressure and leading men is not easy. It becomes harder when the cracks begin to show in public. Eventually, everyone loses faith.