Warburton hails legends’ helping words

MARK WARBURTON is being helped through a stressful time at Rangers by former managers Walter Smith and John Greig.

The Ibrox legends are regulars at home games and have made it clear they are happy to pass on their experience.

Both men know all about the highs and lows of being the boss at Rangers, and Warburton is keen to take advantage of their wisdom.

He said: “The good thing about people of their quality and character is that they come to you.

“They come and have a cup of coffee in the office and talk about what’s going on.

“Walter will phone me from time to time and comes in after games for a chat.

“I’m going to be seeing him for dinner.

“John Grieg is a font of knowledge and experience.

“He’s there before every game talking to the players.

“He’s not there casually, he’s sensibly slipping in words of wisdom – and that helps the boys.

“He will have a few words with James Tavernier, Lee Wallace or Danny Wilson. Why wouldn’t you listen to someone like John?

“He’s got a wealth of experience. It might just be one word of advice but it’s nice to have someone like that around.”

Warburton refuses to say he side have no chance of winning the title, but he is realistic enough to admit that finishing as runners-up wouldn’t be the end of the world.

He said: “Finishing second would have to be progress because we’ve come up from the Championship.

“It’s obviously a level of performance you want.

“We’ve had a consistent trend of improving league performances.

“If you can get the level of performance right, then the results follow.

“If we can do that, get the results we’re looking for and we find ourselves in second, do we judge that as a good season? Supporters want to win, absolutely.

“I’m not going to say we don’t want to win. Of course you want to win.”

Meanwhile, Ibrox defender Rob Kiernan believes Rangers are a club in transition but have to speed up their re-adjustment to life in the top flight.

He said: “There’s a massive appetite among clubs to beat Rangers. I genuinely feel that.

“I feel they are giving an extra 10 or 20% on top of what they usually do.

“There’s a step up from last season but when we look at the talent in our dressing room it should be enough.

“We understand that and we have to do everything we can to turn it round and get results week-in, week-out.

“The expectation’s there and there’s not really six months to get used to this league or get back to how we were playing last season.”