WHEN Mark Warburton asked for his team to be “judged in May” in the immediate aftermath of their 5-1 thrashing at Celtic Park this month, it felt like wishful thinking.

No Rangers (or Celtic) manager has ever benefited from reasoned, patient analysis when it comes to their or their side’s performances, even less so in this era of 24-hour rolling news, an often coruscating social media and an impatient society that demands a reaction to everything in an instant. The notion of slowly chewing over and digesting the facts before arriving at a calculated conclusion has never been entertained in Glasgow. Judgment comes instantaneously, regardless of any potential mitigating factors.

Warburton has been irked at what he feels is over-the-top criticism of his team from elements of the Scottish media, but the condemnation will only heighten if they stumble at Pittodrie this afternoon. Aberdeen, of course, cannot be compared with Celtic in terms of the qualities they possess, but at a notoriously hostile venue, where the home fans will be worked up into a frothy-mouthed frenzy, Rangers will have their mettle truly tested.

If they have any designs on making a genuine tilt for the title – or even putting down a marker to be considered the best of the rest – then these are the occasions on which to prove it. Dropping points for the fifth time in seven league games will only serve to highlight their inadequacies. There will be no hiding place in that scenario.

The irony, of course, is that this is a situation created largely by Warburton and his players. From the moment it became apparent towards the end of last season that Rangers would be playing top-flight football, the message was clear: they would be setting their sights on pushing Celtic for the title straight away.

It was a statement echoed throughout the summer. There was no cautious talk about “seeing how we get on” or “needing to adjust to the step up”. It would be the title or bust. This message was, literally, spelled out in giant letters on the opening game of the season against Hamilton, supporters in the Sandy Jardine Stand at Ibrox holding up cards as the teams came out that read “Going for 55”. In perhaps a portent of things to come, Rangers ended up settling for a rather anti-climactic 1-1 draw.

These are unique circumstances, of course. No other just-promoted team would be expected to push for the title in their first season back, not even Hearts, who made a decent fist of things upon their return last year to eventually claim third spot.

Rangers, still recovering from years of financial mismanagement, should not have been burdened with that pressure either but they are – and much of that is of their own making. Perhaps Warburton felt he couldn’t win either way. If he had used less bullish language and talked down Rangers’ prospects then that may have been interpreted by some supporters as a lack of ambition. And admitting any inferiority to Celtic – regardless of the undoubted financial gulf between the clubs – is never going to play well.

Having made the decision to plump for the riskier but more fan-friendly stance that a title push was a realistic aim, Warburton has to live with the consequences when the early signs suggest that challenge might not materialise. He can’t have it both ways.

Having previously acknowledged that Rangers are expected to win every match and that the fans “might just about accept a draw with Barcelona”, it stands to reason there will be criticism if his team falls below those standards. Just where Rangers feature in the greater scheme of things ought to become clearer by this evening. By the standards they have aspired to, they cannot afford to fall any further behind.

THE American phenomenon of radio “shock jocks” has never really made it across the Atlantic. And for that we should all be eternally grateful. Chris Sutton, though, may well be the closest thing we’ve got. The former Celtic striker has emerged of late as one of the most refreshing and entertaining pundits in Scottish football, offering up an astute and acerbic critique on a weekly basis on both BT Sport and in his newspaper column. There is nobody Sutton won’t fillet if he feels they deserve it, from Ronny Deila last season to Warburton this. His dry sense of humour makes him one of the most watchable commentators on air but there are occasions when he sometimes oversteps the mark.

On Friday night, he called into Radio Clyde’s Super Scoreboard show, nominally to promote a social event he is hosting, and tore into Derek Johnstone, the former Rangers player turned pundit. It made for jaw-dropping radio as Sutton labelled Johnstone a “Rangers apologist” amid other abuse. The attack verged on the personal and again posed the question whether this is all a colossal wind-up act from Sutton, with the Englishman playing a character in the mould of the faux former TV reporter Dennis Pennis who would pounce on unsuspecting celebrities and ask embarrassingly direct questions.

You wonder just where Sutton goes from here after this very public slanging match. Not unlike Joey Barton, there is only so long someone can keep offering up controversial opinions until the shock and novelty of it all begins to wear off.

THE flood of applicants looking to become the next boss of St Mirren – a modest club thrashing around at the wrong end of the Championship – shows that the lure of becoming a manager remains huge even in the lower echelons of the game. Billy Davies and John Hughes, both more accustomed to operating with bigger budgets in better leagues, will both interview early this week, along with another stellar, high-profile candidate accustomed to settings more salubrious than Paisley. The lure of becoming a manager remains irresistible, regardless of location and status.