BRACE YOURSELF, MARK

MARK WARBURTON’S short speech to shareholders at Rangers’ annual general meeting was, essentially, a plea for time and patience. He has three days. Three days until his underperforming, misfiring team travel to the cauldron of Tynecastle and embark upon a three-game run of fixtures that could make or break his season and his reign.

Three days until his team begin a month-long minefield of matches that will conclude with the Premiership’s runaway leaders Celtic travelling to Ibrox.

By new year, the Rangers manager must have delivered conclusive proof that his side will finish second. He has already been informed that qualifying for the Europa League is ‘critical’ to the overall rebuilding of the club — but that alone cannot be enough.

Rangers should be a clear second by early January. They should put daylight between themselves and Aberdeen and Hearts through playing them over the next fortnight.

The problem is that, despite a vastly superior playing budget, the Ibrox side simply cannot be trusted to overcome any team with any kind of proper pedigree in the Premiership.

In four games against the teams which finished within the top four last season, they have lost twice to Celtic, once to Aberdeen and drawn at home to St Johnstone.

Spread that out to the top six and two wins over fifth-placed Motherwell come side by side with two draws home and away against Ross County.

Forget who had the most of the ball and who didn’t. Rangers are not getting results. As they come to terms with having won just half of their Premiership matches to date, that is all that matters.

Is this the kind of criticism from ‘outside sources’ which Warburton mentioned in his Friday address? Is this one of these constant reminders of the weight of expectation on his shoulders, referred to with what seemed a degree of irritation?

Perhaps so. How else, though, are we to consider the coming weeks for the Rangers manager following the remarks made by his chairman Dave King both during and after Friday’s relatively low-key events, weighty and sobering in their tone, at the Clyde Auditorium?

Reality certainly appears to have dawned on King, whose measured, to-the-point statements appeared to signal a welcome end to needless grandstanding and usher in a time of dealing publicly with some pretty harsh truths on and off the pitch.

In footballing terms, the genie is certainly out of the bottle now.

King, of course, has only said what any sane person who has watched Rangers in recent times knows.

They are not where they ought to be. Their summer transfer policy has brought scant returns from sizeable outlays in terms of wages. They are, as two one-sided Old Firm matches highlighted, further behind Celtic than anyone imagined.

All this, of course, has been repeated ad nauseum. Some of it has clearly irked Warburton but the fact it is now being said not just within the tent, but by the ringmaster through the club’s own media channels leaves him having to come to terms with his own reality, too. No one is asking him to challenge Celtic for the title.

Until Rangers can untangle themselves from Sports Direct — a task tougher than killing off Japanese knotweed — and either win round or dilute the power belonging to a certain bloc of shareholders, that seems little more than a pipe dream.

However, he simply has to come a comfortable second. King’s remark that ‘the clubs who spend the most money should, on average, have the better quality players’ is true. Some pretty detailed studies of the economics of the sport have largely concluded that cash dictates quality all the way down the line.

As Warburton prepares to face Hearts away and then at home with a visit from Aberdeen sandwiched in between, there is one soundbite from King which really ought to resonate, though.

There is no need to read between the lines. The only other sound you might hear when listening to the audio is that of the protective bubble popping around Warburton.

‘We would always be a strong No 2 club if that was our ambition because our resources, even at the current level, are way beyond what is available to Aberdeen and Hearts, but that is not what the ambition is,’ stated the chairman.

Unlike others, King also refers to Joey Barton by name. Unlike others, he is not prepared to gloss over how expensive and damaging his ill-fated spell proved to be. When it comes to judging Warburton’s time in charge, it will almost certainly be factored in.

As will the signing of Niko Kranjcar, who arrived in poor shape and is now injured and out for the season. As will the signing of Jordan Rossiter, proving as injury-prone at Ibrox as he was at Liverpool. As will the signing of the lesser-spotted Phillipe Senderos.

Warburton does not appear to be under any great pressure at Rangers. There is nothing to suggest he does not enjoy the backing of the board, but the landscape has changed.

King’s sobering tone should be a wake-up call. Time and patience, when there is this amount of money at stake, comes in finite quantities.