WHERE DID IT ALL WRONG GO FOR DREAM TEAM?

THEY stopped singing about the Magic Hat some time ago. For Rangers and their fans, Mark Warburton’s tenure will be remembered as a tale of unfulfilled promise.

For a while after his arrival in June 2015, it seemed he could do little wrong. But only for a while.

Ever since Tom Rogic skied his penalty to ensure a shootout victory for Rangers in the Old Firm Scottish Cup semi-final ten months ago, Warburton had been on a downward slope.

If managing adversity is a vital aspect of working in Glasgow, then it is one in which he failed.

Rangers said his exit last night had come via the acceptance of a resignation proposal put forward by a representative. But whatever the circumstance, such an outcome had seemed inevitable after Hearts delivered a 4-1 hammering ten days ago. The only real question was over the timing.

Acting before tomorrow’s Scottish Cup meeting with Morton — the team’s last chance of silverware — was unexpected. But it didn’t qualify as a seismic shock. You didn’t need to be versed in the arts of soothsaying to see which way things were going.

The Premiership table provided one indication. Sitting third behind an Aberdeen side with a game in hand, Rangers had to peer across a 27-point ocean to see Celtic. Every single trip to Celtic Park, Pittodrie or Tynecastle had resulted in defeat.

No one of sound mind would have expected Warburton to win the league, but the current situation stretched the boundaries of his vague assertion to be ‘highly competitive’.

Many fans had lost faith in the 54-year-old. Inside the club’s boardroom, that feeling was even more concentrated.

The story of how this came to be can be traced back to several points. But Hampden on May 21, 2016 is as good a place as any to start.

Losing the Scottish Cup final to Hibernian — having led with 11 minutes remaining — hinted at a weakness inside Rangers. A chance to deliver the club’s first major trophy since 2011, and European football, was blown via a wretched performance. Everyone pointed at the defensive flaws. They weren’t properly addressed last summer.

Rangers had to staff up shrewdly to have a chance of keeping things respectable against a Celtic squad revitalised by Brendan Rodgers. Instead, the acquisitions took chunks out of Warburton’s reputation.

Joey Barton was the headline act. And a complete disaster. His expensive exit after a furious training ground bust-up with Warburton in the wake of a 5-1 thrashing by Celtic left a sizeable scar on the manager’s judgment.

Now, Barton must take responsibility for his own actions. He never looked fit. His performances didn’t create any headlines. Those were reserved for the provocative and occasionally classless comments he delivered.

The midfielder’s reputation was hardly a secret. But he had come through a season with Sean Dyche at Burnley in which he had been positively angelic. Having now returned to Turf Moor, he is again proving effective in the English Premier League. That hardly reflects well.

Questions about the financial backing Warburton received are valid, given some of Dave King’s more bombastic statements in the past.

Warburton, though, spent a hefty combined sum — he yesterday insisted it was over £1.5million, but not as high as £2m — on fees for Michael O’Halloran and Joe Garner. The latter was by far the more expensive, but three goals is a paltry return. Rangers are the lowest scorers of the top four clubs in the Premiership.

Speaking at the club’s training ground yesterday, Warburton sought to defend his recruitment.

‘There’s questions asked because we’re 27-points behind Celtic — I understand that, but there’s many successes that haven’t been mentioned,’ he argued.

‘I’ve read some in the comments in the papers which I think are ludicrous.

‘Is Clint Hill a success? Is Lee Hodson a success? Was Matt Gilks a success? So you go through the team.

‘Jordan (Rossiter) has been injured, very unfortunate, Niko Kranjcar very unfortunate. You can go through every team.

‘Last year we were very fortunate to get every single one right and that is highly unusual. Normally you say to yourself get seven out of ten right, any boss would take that.

‘So maybe we were very lucky last year and a little unlucky this year, that’s the way the game goes.’

The problem with some of the arguments Warburton deployed is that they could be turned around. He rightly spoke about a ‘staggering’ financial disparity to Celtic, but would bristle at the mention of his far superior budget in comparison with Hearts or Aberdeen.

An explanation for sticking to the British market was that Rangers couldn’t afford months for players to settle in. But then a slow start to this season was then met by a request for time before any judgements were made on 11 new signings.

When Garner arrived, Warburton admitted he would have to adapt from being ‘entrenched in 4-4-2’. Why, then, spend so much to bring him into a 4-3-3 system which clearly doesn’t suit him?

Warburton would rail against some of the media coverage of Rangers and seemed, initially at least, to find the intensity of interest mystifying.

But this is what happens with big clubs in countries where football matters to a large chunk of the population. The idea that the ‘Glasgow goldfish bowl’ is unique is nonsense. One visit to a press conference at Real Madrid or Barcelona proves that.

He is not stupid. Far from it. The way things are ending at Rangers will hurt, but it would be wrong to dismiss the positive work he did for the club.

His influence on the long-neglected youth academy — a field of expertise from Warburton’s time at Watford and Brentford — may well yield future dividends. In terms of individual talents, he has developed Barrie McKay from a discarded player into a Scotland international.

In the end, though, those signs of promise were simply not enough.