Rangers in turmoil as coach denies quitting

Warburton’s 2-year reign seems over after Glasgow team’s announcement

Mark Warburton’s future as Rangers manager was thrown into turmoil on Friday after he denied the Scottish Premiership club’s claim that he had resigned.

Warburton had been under pressure amid growing unrest at Rangers’ failure to mount a strong challenge for the title and it appeared his twoyear reign was over when the Glasgow giants announced his resignation.

“Rangers has accepted the resignations of manager Mark Warburton, assistant manager David Weir and the Club’s head of recruitment Frank McParland,” a statement on the club’s website read.

“At a meeting with the management team’s representative earlier this week the Club were advised that Mr Warburton, Mr Weir and Mr McParland wished to resign their positions and leave the Club on condition that Rangers agreed to waive its rights to substantial compensation.”

But less than an hour after that revelation, it emerged that Warburton denied he had handed in his resignation and the 54-year-old Englishman was reported to be consulting his legal team.

Warburton told BBC Scotland he was unaware of the statement, which came just hours after he had taken training with the Rangers squad.

Former Brentford boss Warburton led Rangers to promotion from the Scottish second tier last season.

But Rangers have been less dominant on their return to the top-flight and they trail leaders Celtic by 27 points after winning just one of their last five league matches.

A recent 2-1 home defeat against Celtic and a 4-1 thrashing at Hearts had put Warburton’s job security under the spotlight ahead of Sunday’s Scottish Cup fifth round clash with Morton.