Rangers legend Willie Henderson has billed this weekend’s Old Firm encounter as the most important in the club’s history.
The former Ibrox wing king feels that his old side can’t afford to slip any further behind Celtic, even this early in the league season.
But his main concern is that the Rangers fans may just find out how much they have been short-changed by the lack of investment in Mark Warburton’s playing squad.
While Henderson would never advocate a return to the financial recklessness that led Rangers to liquidation, he feels that the club’s fans deserve more.
“Every Old Firm match is important but I don’t think there has ever been one that’s more important for Rangers than this one,” Henderson said.
“This one will tell us whether or not Rangers have been shy with money. That might be proved this weekend.
“Celtic have obviously been spending money on their team and they’ve also earned themselves a huge, huge bonus by qualifying for the Champions League.
“So unless Rangers spend some money on the team it’s going to be difficult for them to compete and they can’t now spend anything until January.
“I think this match at Parkhead could prove to be a wake-up call for Rangers. The other side of that, however, is that the club has been in a very hard place for a long time now.
“They went through a terrible time and, now that we’re back in the real league, the last thing you would want is for the same thing to happen again in terms of spending money we don’t have.
“But there has got to be a happy medium where it can be done sensibly without putting the club at risk again.
“Sometimes things happen and, for whatever reason, that money hasn’t been put in. Maybe there was a mistake or perhaps it’s just been slow in coming.”
Henderson fears that the lack of money made available to manager Warburton may even make him consider his position before too long should Celtic look to be running away with the league.
“Mark obviously has his reputation to consider,” he said.
“He’s a very intelligent man and he’ll review the situation but he certainly isn’t the type of guy who’ll batter his head against a brick wall for too long.
“I don’t think for a minute that Mark Warburton would ever want to be second best. I can’t see that.
“He’ll know what discussions he’s had with the board, what’s involved and how much is going to be made available to him – but he can’t work miracles.
“These Rangers fans have been absolutely unbelievable with what they’ve put up with in the last three or four years.
“I think it would be nice for the fans to see that the club is going to get the financial backing that was promised.”
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