The roof was caving in late last term so why did Warburton not fix those holes?

EVeN as a self-made man, Mark Warburton must appreciate the basic tenets of good housekeeping. When the roof is leaking, no matter how desirable a new sofa or a fresh lick of paint may be, you repair the roof. It’s a question of priorities. As the goals cascaded into Wes Foderingham’s net on Saturday, Rangers fans were entitled to question when their manager first felt the drips on his neck.

For many who trudged home after seeing their side shredded by their bitter rivals, the signs that roof was about to cave in were apparent long before Moussa Dembele headed home the first of Celtic’s five goals 33 minutes in.

Rewind to spring. Amid a charge for the line in the Championship, the fact Warburton’s side conceded three goals in three successive games to Falkirk, Queen of the South and Raith Rovers appeared to be no more than a minor irritation for the englishman.

‘That’s the nature of football,’ he said of that sequence. ‘Nine goals and not one headed strike against us, so there is not an aerial threat that we are exposed to.

‘We are looking at what we can do better and we have to be tighter and harder to beat, that’s for sure. But I don’t think there is one area that we are exposed on.’ Confident? Absolutely. Complacent? Well, let’s look at what happened next. Rangers did wrap up the title with a 1-0 win over Dumbarton and followed that up with a 4-0 victory over Peterhead in the Challenge Cup.

They’ve played two games in the Scottish Cup since that day and nine in the league — straddling the Championship and the Premiership. They’ve not kept a clean sheet in any. Some 21 goals have been conceded in those 11 encounters.

Danny Wilson and Rob Kiernan was the preferred defensive partnership in all but one of the last six games of last season. They lost 11 goals in those five matches. Whatever Warburton saw as their individual strengths, it was plain that together they lacked the required chemistry.

But rather than attend to that matter by making the acquisition of two dominant centre-halves his top priority, his attention was evidently on other things.

Josh Windass, Matt Crooks, Jordan Rossiter and Joey Barton were all paraded prior to Clint hill arriving. Niko Kranjcar, Matt Gilks, Lee hodson, Joe Dodoo and Joe Garner all joined before Philippe Senderos put pen to paper on deadline day.

‘It’s a real worry and Mark needs to find a way to plug those gaps,’ said former Ibrox defender Craig Paterson. ‘There can be no fear factor when opposing teams know they’re going to score. everyone will fancy their chances of getting something against them.

‘What must also concern him is the number of goals his team loses from corners and free-kicks. Someone isn’t doing their job.

‘The manager must find a way of getting Philippe and Clint up to speed because you don’t want to chop and change your defence. That’s the one area of the team which requires consistency of selection.’

No one would question the need for Warburton to strengthen his side for life in the Premiership. But in failing to prioritise the plugging of a leaky rearguard, a calamity such as Saturday was always likely to happen.

You’d give more than a penny for the thoughts of Darren McGregor on the matter. One of Warburton’s first acts as Rangers manager was to show the club’s reigning Player of the Year the door.

Since then, McGregor has starred in the hibernian side which defeated his former employers in the Scottish Cup final and is currently defending a 100-per-cent record in the Championship.

No one would contend he’s a world-beater. But he has pace, heart and can organise. Qualities that were all conspicuous by their absence as Celtic ran amok.

Fashioning a cohesive partnership with what’s now at Warburton’s disposal may be easier said than done. Senderos is suspended for the Ross County game on Saturday and Kiernan is an injury doubt.

hill, who was left on the bench at Celtic Park as harry Forrester replaced Kiernan, will come into contention. Crooks, nominally a full-back, could also be asked to slot in — injury recovery permitting.

But it smacks of desperation and inadequate planning. One of football’s great truisms is the need to build from the back. That same applies to rebuilding a side.

If only that was the sum total of Warburton’s concerns. Of the 11 names he recruited this summer, Barton and Kranjcar were by far the most illustrious. To date, the combined return has been pitiful.

Saturday ought to have been a day for the former Burnley man to savour. The expectation was he’d break up Celtic’s play and attacks. he offered as much resistance as a wind-breaker in a hurricane.

Kranjcar looked every inch a player who spent last season in the holiday camp that’s the North American Soccer League. Over dinner in New York this summer, Warburton convinced himself that the ‘fire still burned’ in the Croat.

IT’S not the midfielder’s desire to get around a pitch that’s the issue, though. It’s the mounting evidence that such a task is beyond him.

What characterised Rangers’ best performances last year was the solidity and mobility in the central area. Andy halliday and Jason holt were present and correct in the wins over Dundee and Celtic in the Scottish Cup.

Injury has restricted holt to two Betfred Cup appearances thus far but, in halliday’s case, coming on at half-time on Saturday in place of Kranjcar was almost insulting.

‘I couldn’t believe that halliday didn’t start,’ said Paterson. ‘he had a fantastic season last time out and he was the leader of the pack in that semi-final.

‘he’s been moved aside to accommodate the new signings, but he was immense at hampden in April — head and shoulders above everyone on the park.

‘When defenders had the ball he always ensured that he made an angle for them so that they could play the ball out from the back the way Mark wants to, but that didn’t happen when he was left out.

‘The manager is still trying to find his best formation, but he needs to realise that picking your 11 best players doesn’t necessarily give you your best team. he’ll also know that, at the Old Firm, you don’t get time to work these things out.’

The problem for Warburton in terms of what to with his two high-profile summer captures is obvious. The solution less so. To pull both out of the side would be an admission that he’s got it wrong in the transfer market.

Yet with the club’s title hopes already hanging by a thread, nor can he afford to ignore the obvious.

For it to function, a dressing room must be a meritocracy. Rossiter, halliday and Windass should not need to make that point to their manager as he sifts through the rubble of the weekend. each now deserves their chance.

It’s hard not to have a degree of sympathy for Warburton in this — the most troubled period of his tenure at Ibrox. Such is the size of Rangers, it’s easy to lose sight of what they are this season — a newly-promoted club.

Challenging Celtic, let alone usurping them at the first time of asking, would be a tall order for any manager, irrespective of the budget at their disposal.

The situation is what it is, however, and Warburton has never tried to dampen the expectations that come with the job.

‘Someone said to me that if we were playing Barcelona tomorrow we’d be expected to win, but we might take a draw,’ he recently said. ‘I’ve never forgotten that.’

It’s a noble platitude but one that presently seems rather antiquated. For the englishman, there are far more pressing matters.