MUCH has been said and written about the success Mark Warburton enjoyed as a City trader.
In between the end of his football playing days and the commencement of his coaching career, Warburton worked as a currency dealer for institutions such as RBS, Bank of America and AIG. He made more than a decent fist of it, too, turning over up to £2 billion every day. It was a high-pressure, intense environment but Warburton was well rewarded for his efforts.
Upon his unveiling as the new Rangers manager last week, the 52-year-old spoke of putting to good use those positive experiences accumulated during his time on the Square Mile; skills such as dealing with pressure, working within a team to deliver results, and managing the thrill of the chase.
However, when Warburton took the bold decision to turn his back on the lucrative world of finance to throw his lot in with football and try to make a full-time career out of coaching, it was his failures and not his successes that would prove the most useful transferable asset.
Part of his remit as a trader had been to make speculative calls to potential customers, with the unsurprising result most times the response at the other end of the telephone line was not a positive one. That ability to deal with constant rejection and not become de-motivated or deterred by it would stand him in good stead. With a fairly unspectacular football career spent at non-league clubs Enfield and Borehamwood, Warburton did not find access to football's inner sanctums easy to come by. It was Sporting in Portugal who finally opened the door to him and he remains grateful to them for doing so. Now he hopes to be in a position to make a reciprocal gesture to those who helped him in his hour of need.
"Was it difficult to get doors open in the early days? Absolutely," he said. "In the City, we used to call it cold-calling - when you called the customers and tried to get their business. That, though, held you in good stead because I called a number of clubs and got the door slammed in my face every time.
"Finally Sporting Lisbon invited us over for a couple of days. I spent three months over there and then travelled to Ajax, Valencia, Barcelona, Anderlecht, Borussia Dortmund and Inter Milan, and learnt so much. You go to various clubs around Europe and sometimes you just pick up small bits and pieces, sometimes how not to do it. It's not always positive, sometimes it's 'I'll never do that', but again it helps you. You have to do your homework, travel and continue that education.
"It's not just the first team. It's the Under-nines coach or the Under-14s coach or it can be the administrator. Barca have an outstanding lady doing their administration, first class in everything she does. We can learn from that; send your staff over, spend two days with her and see what she does. It's about educating the staff and keeping improving and if we can do that here, then I am sure we will. At the same time, I want people coming to Rangers to see what we do and hopefully learn from that."
One of those who could be dropping by is Diogo Matos, the man who made Warburton feel so welcome at Sporting. "He texted me just the other day and I still speak regularly with him. He was an ex-player and director who left the club a little while ago, but he was there for 15 years and had an outstanding font of knowledge, great personality and was always eager to learn more. I learned a lot from him and they had some really good staff at that club as well, this the club that produced Figo and Ronaldo and these type of players.
"I hope, touch wood, I have helped him as well. It's important to be reciprocal, so I have helped him with contacts into the UK and wherever else and that's how any business works. Find friends you can trust and work with them."
The details are important to Warburton. If Rangers are to succeed, and win the Championship this season as is his intention, then he believes the entire operation will need evaluated and possibly overhauled. He intends on overseeing it all personally to ensure certain standards are met.
"We play at Ibrox every 10 days or two weeks but the training ground is where they go to work and we need to develop our young players there," he said. "They are athletes so we need to make sure the food is right, pitches are right, and the same with kit, video analysis, medical care, logistics, all that stuff. We must give them the best chance. We can't give them any excuses.
"I'm hands-on every day. Absolutely. There is no point in me moaning and bitching about things that aren't right. I delegate and I also do things. If people tell you they can do everything then I think they are lying. It can dilute the quality of what you are trying to do.
"If you get good staff in then you have to trust them and give them responsibility but they also have accountability. If they screw up then they pay the price, the way a player would do."
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