SMASHED IT!
I told the players as soon as I met them we had to romp to the title, says Warburton
NEVER one to be too outspoken when the Press are around, perhaps we were given an indication that a successful campaign has loosened the shackles a little when Mark Warburton revealed his first-ever words to the Rangers players upon his arrival at Ibrox.
‘We spoke about our plans at the start of the season — we spoke about smashing the Championship,’ recalled the manager. ‘We didn’t talk about winning the Championship — we wanted to smash it. It was on my first flipchart when I got the job, but we kept that target quiet until the job was done.’
Actions have certainly spoken louder than any bombastic words uttered behind closed doors.
The question now is whether they can ‘smash’ the Premiership on the club’s long-awaited return to the top flight next season.
Warburton has gone one further, however, by telling his players that they are more than capable of demolishing Celtic’s dreams of an historic 10 league titles in a row.
‘Is it the same target next season?’ asked Warburton. ‘You all know the expectation at Rangers. As David Weir always says: “Second is last”.
‘It (preventing 10-in-a-row) is another strand of that expectation. So we will look to be the best we can be next season. And if we do that — and we do it well — then that other thing (10-in-a-row) won’t happen. That is a simple fact.
‘If we get it wrong, and we aren’t good enough, then that thing — and I say it respectfully — can happen. I am not ignoring that fact.
‘We know we must be the best we can be next season because there will be tough challenges from Celtic, Aberdeen, Hearts, Motherwell and St Johnstone.
‘Our aim is to do as well as we can in the league. We will face some top teams, top managers and battlehardened players with European experience — but we aren’t bad ourselves.
‘We have the nucleus of a really good squad. If we can add the four or five players I think we need, then I think we will be alright and we will do well.’
Some observers have questioned whether the Englishman can continue with the attacking style which has served him so well in a glittering campaign.
Yet while he has been regularly told that his ultra-attacking brand of play is tactical suicide, he has been facing up to critics of his teams’ adventurous styles long before he arrived in Glasgow.
That’s why the 53-year-old takes it with a pinch of salt when he is advised to curb his attacking enthusiasm if he wants to succeed in the Scottish Premiership.
‘When I was at Brentford, we were promoted and I was told we couldn’t play that way in the Championship because we would be eaten alive,’ recalled Warburton.
‘But David Weir and I just couldn’t see that at all. So we had a real go and we finished fifth, before being knocked out of the play-offs by Middlesbrough. That shows we can play that way.
‘We’ve shown this season that when teams open up against us, we’ve had positive results. I think back to games in the Scottish Cup where we played against really good teams like Dundee and Celtic. We played really well against them.
‘Of course, we have to recognise that we might have to tweak the style and make sure we retain our shape because you do get punished more at the higher level. But I’m sure you will agree there’s no reason why we can’t play the same way.’
Warburton’s stunning first season at Ibrox saw him crowned PFA Scotland’s Manager of the Year last Sunday, but he knows there is no room for resting on laurels.
On the back of winning the league, the Petrofac Training Cup and beating Celtic to reach the Scottish Cup Final came a defeat at Hibernian last month. That reverse led to an encounter at a petrol station with a disgruntled fan whose view of the team’s performance at Easter Road was as blue as Warburton’s team’s jerseys.
AT a club where he agrees failure to win promotion would have spelled the end of his Ibrox tenure, pressure is a constant companion. That’s why the former city trader believes his pre-Old Firm semi-final remarks last month about it being merely ‘another game of football’ were misinterpreted.
‘I can’t reveal the exact words that guy at the petrol station said to me,’ Warburton smiled. ‘Does that bring out the best in me? I like it, I really enjoy it. Davie Weir and Jim Stewart always tell me that second is last and, if Rangers played Barcelona tomorrow, then our fans might accept a draw.
‘Expectation is the key word. Earlier this season, I read we were in crisis and that we would get smashed by Hibs because we had won one in four league games (in December). Some people were saying it was great.
‘You have to accept the pressure. This job is a pretty precarious one. It’s not one where you’re sitting for 35 years and looking forward to your pension. It doesn’t work that way.
‘If we hadn’t won promotion, I wouldn’t still be in a job. I think that’s right. It’s a tough business, but you have to enjoy the pressure. That was why I was so bemused by the comments about the Old Firm game.
‘I wasn’t in any way disrespecting it. I was looking forward to it. I totally understood the significance of the game and how it ranks in worldwide local derbies. My point was this game is all about pressure and, if you don’t like that, then don’t get involved in football.’
Warburton is particularly proud of how Rangers fans have flocked behind their team and is delighted their heroes have given the Ibrox faithful a reason to smile after some bleak times since liquidation in 2012.
‘I was still in discussions with Rangers when they played Motherwell in the play-offs last season,’ he recalled. ‘What struck me about those games were the empty stands. I was commentating at the Middlesbrough v Norwich Play-Off Final at Wembley. I looked around and there were 80,000 fans filling the stadium.
‘We have had more than 50,000 fans at a lot of our games this season and we know we have to keep them happy. They’ve been fantastic. We recognise they had been starved of success for a fair while. But we are back in the top flight now. It’s been a successful season.’
Warburton gave his players four days off this week to allow the squad time to get some rest and recuperation ahead of the Scottish Cup Final on Saturday, May 21. After that they will play Tottenham in London behind closed doors before returning to training for the 10 days before facing Hibs in the Hampden showpiece.
Warburton was particularly complimentary about his captain Lee Wallace, who has played every minute of every game this season and was crowned PFA Scotland’s Championship Player of the Year.
He believes now the Ibrox skipper is back in the top flight, Scotland recognition will surely return. ‘I can’t speak highly enough about Lee Wallace,’ said Warburton. ‘I’m delighted for him getting his award. Last week he got the Rangers Player of the Year award from the fans — and to get this recognition from his fellow professionals is also first class.
‘Has playing in the second tier gone against him with Scotland? Possibly. You can look at it if there’s a player in the Premiership and one in the Championship, so who gets the nod?
‘I understand that, but Lee has got better and better throughout the season and he will be back after the summer in good shape as he is a good professional.
‘I didn’t give Lee the Rangers captaincy lightly. We waited four or five weeks first to see if he was the right person. There is a lot of responsibility, but Lee has embraced it and he has been a first-class captain for Rangers. I am delighted he is getting the rewards.’
The rewards have also come Warburton’s way, so much so that his name has been linked with everton recently. The englishman was at pains to stress there has not been an approach from any club to lure him back south.
‘I was linked to the everton job and I find that really disturbing because there is a top manager in situ (Roberto Martinez) and to be linked to it is so disrespectful,’ he said.
‘But I can’t control the stories. If you are bottom of the league and struggling, you aren’t linked to too many jobs. You are more likely to be linked to stories about getting sacked in the morning.
‘I haven’t had any approaches, but it shows we are all doing well.’