IT MUST BE ALL OR NOTHING AT IBROX
Warburton departure had to be hasty, says Ferguson
RANGERS have a poor recent history with long goodbyes. The sevenmonth countdown to Walter Smith’s departure in 1998 made Wim Jansen a Celtic hero for stopping ten-in-row, and Alex McLeish could only achieve third place eight years later when everyone knew Paul Le Guen was waiting in the wings.
Contrast that with the swift action when no less a figure than Graeme Souness was not afforded the pleasure of completing the final four games of the 1990/91 season and escorted to the exit door after declaring his intention to join Liverpool in the summer.
When it became entirely obvious early last week, via the approach from agent Dave Lockwood to broker an exit strategy for his clients, that the long-suspected commitment issues of Mark Warburton and his staff were a full-blown wobble, then there could only be one common-sense outcome for Rangers.
In April 1991 there was a league title at stake, eventually won by Smith. Midway through this tumultuous campaign, there might ‘only’ be a runners-up berth way behind Celtic and a Scottish Cup up for grabs.
But this messy split before Valentine’s Day was essential to those key ambitions being reached, to safeguard a return to European football next season. All the love between the Ibrox hierarchy and Warburton had gradually evaporated anyway.
Yet after proposing to Rangers that his clients were resigning immediately on the condition that a right to around £1million of compensation from their next employers was waived, Lockwood changed tack later in the week. He claimed that Warburton, David Weir and Frank McParland were content to work away at Ibrox for now, but still anticipated departing for no reimbursement when a new club was secured.
Was this development tied in with the decision of Nottingham Forest to stick by interim boss Gary Brazil until the end of the season just over 24 hours after Warburton had been heavily backed to land the job?
Ian Ferguson, in the Rangers dressing room when Souness departed, is convinced the current Ibrox board have called this parting of the ways correctly by ensuring ties have been severed at the first confirmation that commitment had dissolved.
Ferguson said: ‘If there has been any suggestion or talks about wanting to leave, then Mark Warburton and his staff are not committed in the way they should be. Rangers is too big a club for people to treat the place like a revolving door.
‘If they wanted to stay on until another club came in, talk about no compensation, then they must go. To think they could stay on and manage the club on their conditions is totally wrong. Even now in the state Rangers are in, we’re still one of the best-supported clubs in Europe and fans will not take lightly to that. ‘The board has done the right thing. Rangers can’t be used in that manner. There’s the door and don’t let it hit you on the way out. You are not committed to the Rangers cause. I love Graeme Souness, he brought me to the club and I’d so much time for him.
‘I knew Liverpool was his first love and the minute I heard they were in for him I knew he’d want to go. Graeme wanted to stay and go for the title. As much as we didn’t want Graeme to go at all, David Murray told him he wasn’t using Rangers on his terms.
‘He had to promote Walter straight away. Not exactly in these words, it was clear that David Murray was saying that we do not let any one person dictate to us. There is no one bigger than Rangers. The dressing room needs to know everyone in there is totally devoted.’
Two years ago, Warburton retained his professionalism to guide Brentford to the Championship play-offs on a small budget, despite his planned summer exit being confirmed with three months of the season still to go.
He was able to get quite a tune out of the players who trusted him and was carried to the post-season on a wave of goodwill from fans who could not believe owner Matthew Benham was prepared to rip up a successful partnership.
The atmosphere at Ibrox is very different to Griffin Park, and this season’s Rangers have been a shadow of the side that carried out the specific instruction to ‘smash the Championship’ and also beat Kilmarnock, Dundee and Celtic to reach the Scottish Cup Final.
The close-season signings worked out dismally, highlighted by the debacle that was luring Joey Barton to Glasgow. There were 13 new recruits since the summer yet, in the recent 4-1 thrashing at Tynecastle, the starting line-up featured only three — Clint Hill and last month’s two loan captures Emerson Hyndman and Jon Toral.
The most expensive signings of the 2016 windows — Michael O’Halloran and Joe Garner at a combined cost of £2m — do not reflect well on Warburton and his recruitment chief McParland. Garner arrived at the age of 28 and into Warburton’s 4-3-3 set-up, having played 4-4-2 all his lowerleague English days. The most recent of his three goals came in October against Kilmarnock.
Critical comments on the value for money Rangers were enjoying from his policy were vigorously opposed by Warburton, whose skin wore thinner with every passing week in the spotlight. ‘I’d love to have seen
improvement through the season, but that’s not happened,’ noted Ferguson.
‘With the second-highest budget in the league and being 27 points behind Celtic — that is not good enough. Okay, it takes time. But Rangers must win. Those who come into the club must have a strong mentality. They have got to adapt to the pressures, react to cope with it. And if you don’t cope with it well and can’t deal with criticism, then you shouldn’t be at Ibrox.
‘Let’s face it, everyone gets it at some stage. Mark Hateley, Ally McCoist, Mo Johnston and myself — that’s just off the top of my head from one team. What they had was a strong mentality and a good network around them.
‘I was strong and ugly enough to cope with pressure. I don’t think many among the modern player understands that. You either have the desire to be there at the great club that is Rangers — or you don’t.’
Seeking to inspire the squad yesterday, before head development squad coach Graeme Murty guides them into action against Morton, was Stewart Robertson. The managing director gathered the players together to explain the events which had precipitated the departure of their manager.
‘I imagine they were truthful with the players about what has happened,’ said Ferguson. ‘If the management team weren’t committed then that’s what they need to tell the players. But players may well have known themselves, or at least sensed it, from being in there.
‘It’s a totally different situation, but it wasn’t ideal for us as players to know that Walter was going to be leaving when we tried to win our tenth title. He didn’t have another club to go to and, for everything he’d done, was a legend. But did I want to hear that at the time? No, absolutely not.
‘That should’ve been kept under wraps while you are going for leagues and Cups. But the club had its own thoughts on that and why it was handled that way. In this case with Warburton leaving, I know if the board spoke to me and I was still in the dressing room, I’d be giving my absolute best to go out and fight for Rangers.’