HISTORY is said to be written – or re-written – by the victors but nobody can justifiably claim to have emerged from this latest Rangers fiasco with their reputations enhanced. The details of just why and how Mark Warburton, David Weir, and Frank McParland ended up leaving the Ibrox club remain somewhat murky but, with his former manager keeping his counsel for the time being, Rangers chairman Dave King took the opportunity to air his side of the story. The lengthy statement released yesterday afternoon read like someone getting their retaliation in first.
It had been apparent for some time that the long-distance relationship between King and Warburton was growing ever acrimonious. In his statement King removed any doubt, accusing Warburton of asking for – and then mis-spending – sums beyond his transfer budget, of being overly sensitive of criticism, and of leaking confidential information. The strident nature of King’s words ensured there could be no U-turn on the resignations, and may also plant a seed in the minds of prospective future managers of the sort of scrutiny they can expect to be placed under.
King was most scathing of Warburton’s recruitment drive last summer, both its quantity and quality. Having previously laid out a plan to sign “five or six players” to help Rangers finish second and qualify for Europe, the board bent to the manager’s demand for “accelerated investment” and sanctioned a total of 11 new summer additions. For varied reasons, none can be considered unqualified successes, leaving King to bemoan that “we are not where we anticipated we would be at this stage of the season, and have not repeated the success that we had with our signings from the previous season”.
Warburton would struggle to muster a decent defence – no pun intended – to that criticism, although King and his board should also indulge in a degree of introspective examination for deviating so easily from their so-called “prudent phased investment”. If Rangers have indeed learned from the lessons of the past, then not even the prospect of Joey Barton or Niko Kranjcar pitching up at Ibrox should have been enough for them to so hastily ditch their business model. A strong chairman would not yield so easily to a manager making such demands.
King’s claim that he has already provided £18m of the apparent £30m needed to “achieve our stated objectives” may also cause Warburton to raise an inquisitive eyebrow, given he spent only around £2.5m on transfer fees. Where the rest of the money went, the chairman did not expand on.
King also took the opportunity to tacitly accuse Warburton or one of his staff of being indiscreet with confidential information. “Your Board’s routine questioning of management was leaked to the media and conveyed as being a negative reflection of the Board’s attitude to the manager and the recruitment department,” read the statement. “It was confirmed to me that the leak did not come from a board member.”
It felt like a slightly unnecessary and gratuitous dig at a departing manager. Leaks to the media from figures of authority – be it managers, directors or even chairmen – are commonplace throughout the game, making what Warburton was being accused of nothing particularly out of the ordinary. For all the sticks with which the Englishman could be beaten, this felt like a strange one to choose.
King, though, felt that the sentiment expressed by Warburton in his comments to the media also spoke of a manager not comfortable under the spotlight. And on that front, it must be said that the now former Rangers boss was regularly, often peculiarly, picky about what he felt was negative publicity. “Irrespective of who leaked confidential information, it is clear from subsequent media comments that the manager did not respond well to the Board reviewing his recruitment activity,” added King in his statement. “This is a strange position to adopt and, in my personal experience, is not a position that a more experienced manager would adopt. No manager in the world can reasonably expect to be beyond scrutiny.”
By this point in the statement it became apparent that nothing was off limits. King confirmed the storyline that first emerged on Friday night of the management team looking to resign but only if Rangers then waived any claim for compensation should they alight at another club. When the expected move– thought to be to Nottingham Forest – fell through, the management team’s agent looked to “defer the resignation” but had that plea waved away. “The Board met to consider this request but resolved to hold them to the original agreement,” added King, closing the door on any possibility that Warburton could end up staying on as Rangers manager.
Lest there were any fans still unsure as to on which side their loyalties lay, King revealed details of Warburton’s apparent desire to leave Rangers and return to England. “I was alert to a conversation that Mark Warburton had with me after joining the Club in which he advised me that his long-term ambition was to manage in the EPL and he viewed Rangers as a stepping-stone to achieve this. His comments to the media simultaneously reinforced his present unhappiness at the Club.” He has said his piece. The ball is back in Warburton’s court.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel