Warburton interview in The Guardian

Pedro is fair game, but Warburton would never have achieved what Gerrard has to date for the simple reason that he has no idea how to set up a defence.

He was sacked by Forest because he lost more games than he won and their supporters made the same howls of frustration about his lack of defensive nous and tactical rigidity that we did.

As said before, Warburton would get a lot more slack on here if he’d simply show a bit more humility.

He did a decent job and who knows, had he been given Pedro’s transfer kitty would probably have made a better fist of it than he did, but ultimately the job was too big for him yet he still refuses to accept his limitations may have been a factor in his demise, although I’ll agree with you that the club didn’t cover themselves in roses with the way it ended either.
He doesn't have humilty because he's an arrogant bassa into the bargain as is his big pal Davie. He was an aberration in no small part thanks to Paul Murray and John Gilligan's blue sky thinking.

I wouldn't have trusted him with the money afforded to the disaster that was Pedro. He signed Phillipe Senderos ffs! He made Thistle's Kris Doolan look like Hernan Crespo at Ibrox one day. I gave out a huge sigh when I heard the news that he had been appointed. Having watched Brentford re-invent the wheel the previous season, there were tell tale signs that the guy didn't learn and was extremely dogmatic.

People were initially impressed by the pseudo tiki-taka but it didn't take too long to wear thin and it certainly didn't take opposition managers long to figure out how to beat him. All of about two and a half months if memory serves. The Semi-final against them was a great day and a fine performance from ordinary players. But hand on heart, we could've and should've been taken apart that day.

Any Rangers manager who counts winning the Challenge Cup as a serious achievement is delusional, conceited or both.
 
He gave me one of the best days of my life in the SCSF.
However, I can't really blame DK for not loosening the purse strings when you saw the guff it was wasted on, I'm sure he was aware of the iffy rumours re. Transfers as well.
MW only ever saw us as a stepping stone, he got his move in the end.
We moved on, look where we are now vs where he is. I think we've done and will continue to do better.
 
The role of the club, King in particular, in Warburton’s departure is glossed over on here.

Warburton was a good manager for us. Lot of people forget he inherited a team that had lost 6-1 to Motherwell. Took us to our only cup final of the last 8 years and humiliated the Yahoos into the bargain. If he’d been backed like Pedro and Gerrard then who knows.
Not for me.
I loved his football and some of the tactics were superb, one move early in the semi when the scum tried to press us and we played football to get out of it will live forever in my mind.
He gave us Tavernier and Waghorn but also Kiernan, and it’s that final name that tells me he couldn’t be trusted with more dosh.
I don’t blame him for the final loss.
Losing Ball was a blow to start with.
We got in front after the calamitous start but too many individual errors cost us.
Nicky Clark losing the ball then spending time arguing with somebody and not getting back sickened me.
 
I can’t hold a grudge against Warburton. I accept he was a limited manager who got found out and I accept he talked a good game but was always looking after number one. However, he won us back our pride, got us back into the top league and we played some fantastic football at the start. I remember watching the 3-1 game against St Mirren and I was absolutely buzzing for the season ahead.
That game against St.Mirren, we’re two up and I’m texting my Arsenal fan mate with the updates.
It’s like watching Arsenal, I’m telling him.
Thirty to forty passes then goal .... to St.Mirren.
It was a taste of things to come.
 
He gave me one of the best days of my life in the SCSF.
However, I can't really blame DK for not loosening the purse strings when you saw the guff it was wasted on, I'm sure he was aware of the iffy rumours re. Transfers as well.
MW only ever saw us as a stepping stone, he got his move in the end.
We moved on, look where we are now vs where he is. I think we've done and will continue to do better.
Come now, be fair, Ronny Delia gave you one of the best days of your life.
 
From "the Magic Hat", "to effin twat."
M.W. was fine at championship level, but the step up to the next level, and only playing the A-Plan cost him in the end.
Like many others, I thought the way we played when he arrived was superb. Eventually teams clocked on to his style of play, and slowly but surely things started going wrong.
 
I'd be pissed off too if I got sacked from a job I spent months sleekitly whoring myself out for behind the back of my current employer.

Teams had Warburton figured out in the second half of the Championship season. He's never a top-level manger; I don't think I will ever properly be over the disgraceful, cowardly loss to those junkie bastards in the Scottish Cup final.

And he fucked it. Taking zelalem off was only a good idea on his spreasheet.
 
And there it is again - "at no stage did we ever resign".

Well guess what Mark. Rangers say you did. If you didn't, fucking sue us. I certainly would if my employer accepted a resignation that I never made and put me out of work.

Why do no journalists seem to press him any further when he comes out with this?
 
Kranjcar at the centre of a 3 man midfield at the piggery. The guy never learned and never changed so I’m not sure what makes anyone feel he’d have managed to turn it around.

Still you’ve got to give him his due, he’s so charming he was able to do what he did, threaten the club with legal action and still have fans licking his arse.

As said earlier in the thread, I’d view him far more favourably if it wasn’t for, firstly his behaviour at the end, and secondly his continuing disingenuous feigning of innocence over it.

If he’d genuinely had the rug pulled from under him by the club I’d even have understood his stance on legal action, but the fact he never pursued it tells you what you need to know there.

I don’t really agree with the snakeoil salesman thing. I think he came in with some bright ideas and had us playing some good football, albeit in the second tier of Scottish football, but his limitations as a coach and tactician were exposed fairly early on and it doesn’t appear he’s able or willing to learn from it.

If you listen to him though, which it seems difficult not to given the amount of talking he seems to do, you get the impression he has quite a high opinion of himself and still believes he did a good job with us in leaving us third in the SPFL table.

Which is precisely why he’s no longer our manager.
 
As said earlier in the thread, I’d view him far more favourably if it wasn’t for, firstly his behaviour at the end, and secondly his continuing disingenuous feigning of innocence over it.

If he’d genuinely had the rug pulled from under him by the club I’d even have understood his stance on legal action, but the fact he never pursued it tells you what you need to know there.

I don’t really agree with the snakeoil salesman thing. I think he came in with some bright ideas and had us playing some good football, albeit in the second tier of Scottish football, but his limitations as a coach and tactician were exposed fairly early on and it doesn’t appear he’s able or willing to learn from it.

If you listen to him though, which it seems difficult not to given the amount of talking he seems to do, you get the impression he has quite a high opinion of himself and still believes he did a good job with us in leaving us third in the SPFL table.

Which is precisely why he’s no longer our manager.

He was definitely a snakeoil salesman mate. He talks the talk far more than he ever walks the walk. He did do a lot of good in his first season, I believe in giving credit where it’s due and I’ll never take that away from him, he at least transformed Ally’s holiday camp into something resembling a proper training centre for professional footballers.

But yeah he’s an intelligent guy, he never followed up on his threat of legal action so he knew fine well he was in the wrong and didn’t have a leg to stand on. He’s since moved to 2 other teams and we’ve had people here post snippets from their fans forums and it’s an exact repeat of what we eventually had on here. Clearly he has one very specific way of working and won’t deviate from it, even if it’ll inevitably cost him his job. Aside from that, the way transfers eventually materialised under him and his mate was just all very strange and I’m not convinced they were all done with the club’s best interests at heart.
 
He was definitely a snakeoil salesman mate. He talks the talk far more than he ever walks the walk. He did do a lot of good in his first season, I believe in giving credit where it’s due and I’ll never take that away from him, he at least transformed Ally’s holiday camp into something resembling a proper training centre for professional footballers.

But yeah he’s an intelligent guy, he never followed up on his threat of legal action so he knew fine well he was in the wrong and didn’t have a leg to stand on. He’s since moved to 2 other teams and we’ve had people here post snippets from their fans forums and it’s an exact repeat of what we eventually had on here. Clearly he has one very specific way of working and won’t deviate from it, even if it’ll inevitably cost him his job. Aside from that, the way transfers eventually materialised under him and his mate was just all very strange and I’m not convinced they were all done with the club’s best interests at heart.

Joe Garner was never a Mark Warburton player in his life. No finesse, no skill, no tactical discipline, could barely strike a ball cleanly.

But he still spent £1.8m on him.
 
Still chuckle to myself when people on the old board were shitting themselves from Spurs or England coming in and taking him away from us.
But like others I grateful for the job he did and wish him and most ex Rangers well.
There are exceptions to that rule though
 
I have mixed opinions of Warburton, he certainly was a significant milestone in our recovery and he then left under controversial circumstances.
However, in my lifetime viewing football, the position of manager of a football club has always been an employment matter filled with controversy and managers have as much right to protect their employment status as club's have in looking after their own particular interests.

The outcome of this is often quite messy and Warburton's actions and our club's actions are up for debate depending on how you choose to look at it.
I, however, accept that Dave King occasionally has to be ruthless in his dealings in order to further the interests of Rangers and that is as much as I can be bothered to say in the matter.

I will continue to wish Mark Warburton all the best and thank him for the things that he did achieve at the club, he made a contribution that was positive in its early stages and he gave us a cracking season in getting a promotion.
 
Glib, talked a good game, had high opinion of his abilities as a manager that was in no sense justified, Warburton has found his true level at Rangers - QPRangers that is. After the duplicitous way he connived to get himself appointed to the Nottingham F. job, believing that it would be his stepping stone to the EPL and subsequent 'fame' and 'glory', how any Rangers fan could accord Warburton respect is beyond me. I said at the time of his departure that Rangers would be the biggest club he will ever get to manage. That still remains my view.
 
The way I see it is that his snakery did us a favour as it was clear by that time that Rangers was far too big a job for him. So giving us an excuse to kick his arse back down the M74 worked out well for us (eventually- we had to endure Pedro and Murty first).
 
And there it is again - "at no stage did we ever resign".

Well guess what Mark. Rangers say you did. If you didn't, fucking sue us. I certainly would if my employer accepted a resignation that I never made and put me out of work.

Why do no journalists seem to press him any further when he comes out with this?
He contacted the LMA to take his case up to sue us but nothing ever came of it.....I wonder why?!.
 
I dont think he understands the game. He talks about the game like its a business of some kind. He found a way of playing a fast passing game that worked for a time but he was totally out his depth in the premier league. Still he wasn't given much in the way of resources to compete. I don't hold it against him. Just a manager, like Pedro, who wasn't cut out for managing us.
 
Joe Garner was never a Mark Warburton player in his life. No finesse, no skill, no tactical discipline, could barely strike a ball cleanly.

But he still spent £1.8m on him.

Absolutely, in fact he’s pretty much the polar opposite of the type of player that would fit Warburton’s preferred style of play. No finesse whatsoever, incapable of playing one touch football and was basically just a battering ram that ran around booting players whilst struggling with basics like getting a clean connection on the ball. Between that, the fee and the curious delays due to the changing of agents etc, it just stunk all round.
 
The way I see it is that his snakery did us a favour as it was clear by that time that Rangers was far too big a job for him. So giving us an excuse to kick his arse back down the M74 worked out well for us (eventually- we had to endure Pedro and Murty first).
I think Dave King was very happy to see him go tbh as his time was well and truly up by then.
That doing at The Piggery was bad enough without the one we got at Tynecastle later on!.
 
I think Dave King was very happy to see him go tbh as his time was well and truly up by then.
That doing at The Piggery was bad enough without the one we got at Tynecastle later on!.

That’s basically been confirmed. King didn’t like him, he felt he wasn’t giving us a good enough return for the investment and the relationship really broke down when King asked questions about recruitment and the extremely thin skinned Warburton didn’t like it all.

If King didn’t think Warburton was giving us value for money I can only imagine what he was thinking during the Pedro era, other than “there’s fùck all chance Robertson and Park are ever being allowed to recruit a manager again”.
 
I guess a big unresolved question remains what exactly was the big falling out post cup final about.

I seem to recall it was suggested that Warburton felt the board had reneged on some bonus or other.

Given that he lost the cup final it can’t have been over that, so it must have been to do with gaining promotion, in which case you’d have to ask what the club’s reasons were in withholding it / underpaying it, if indeed that’s what happened.

Or was it over the budget for the following season? Did Warburton feel the board were asking too much for too little? Did he believe there had been previous inference that there would be more money available?

Or was it simply a clash of personalities? Did King see through him? Was he unconvinced Warburton had the ability to take us forward? Did he just not like him?

Whatever it was that seems to have been the catalyst for his demise, but he’s kidding himself on if he thinks he’d ever have us where Gerrard has now - he’s simply not that good.
 
That’s basically been confirmed. King didn’t like him, he felt he wasn’t giving us a good enough return for the investment and the relationship really broke down when King asked questions about recruitment and the extremely thin skinned Warburton didn’t like it all.

If King didn’t think Warburton was giving us value for money I can only imagine what he was thinking during the Pedro era, other than “there’s fùck all chance Robertson and Park are ever being allowed to recruit a manager again”.

That’s always confused me.

If King felt Warburton wasn’t delivering, why on earth did he agree to the hire of such an obvious charlatan like Pedro?
 
he’s kidding himself on if he thinks he’d ever have us where Gerrard has now - he’s simply not that good.

He said the Scottish Cup final was still “a great occasion”. I mean it’s soundbites like that which show he’s not a winner and never a Rangers manager. I can’t imagine Gerrard ever saying that after losing a cup final to Hibs. Compare MW’s feelings post cup final defeat to those of Souness, who after a cup final loss, stormed off the pitch and binned his runners up medal, telling his players that 2nd best meant fùck all to him and simply wasn’t good enough.
 
That’s always confused me.

If King felt Warburton wasn’t delivering, why on earth did he agree to the hire of such an obvious charlatan like Pedro?

He didn’t though, Robertson and Park’s son made that call. I’ll bet King was absolutely desperate to pull the plug on Pedro in the early stages of the next season.
 
The guy was injured, was he not? Fyvie crocked him (and was booked) literally two minutes before he was taken off.

Domestically, he brought the most relative success since Smith.

Happy to be corrected if that’s the case.

We were winning at the time and we had one player who was holding on to possession for us, Warbs took him off and I’m still raging!
 
He didn’t though, Robertson and Park’s son made that call. I’ll bet King was absolutely desperate to pull the plug on Pedro in the early stages of the next season.

You can’t have it that king hired Gerrard but not the previous managers. Either he’s in charge or he’s not.

Warburton did his job. Pedro was a disaster.
Stevie is a beautiful legend of a man.
 
He said the Scottish Cup final was still “a great occasion”. I mean it’s soundbites like that which show he’s not a winner and never a Rangers manager. I can’t imagine Gerrard ever saying that after losing a cup final to Hibs. Compare MW’s feelings post cup final defeat to those of Souness, who after a cup final loss, stormed off the pitch and binned his runners up medal, telling his players that 2nd best meant fùck all to him and simply wasn’t good enough.

100%

A man that didn’t understand that the primary objective is to win
 
He didn’t though, Robertson and Park’s son made that call. I’ll bet King was absolutely desperate to pull the plug on Pedro in the early stages of the next season.

He’s the chairman and biggest shareholder though.

If he had the most influence in getting rid of Warburton, why wasn’t that influence also on display when Robertson and Park opted for Pedro?

Then you remember King apparently wanted McInnes so we might have to accept that he may not be the best judge when it comes to footballing matters.
 
Did he go the full interview without having a pop at Jock Wallace? Gets that into most conversations
 
You can’t have it that king hired Gerrard but not the previous managers. Either he’s in charge or he’s not.

Warburton did his job. Pedro was a disaster.
Stevie is a beautiful legend of a man.

I know, Mark Allen was the one responsible for bringing Gerrard, I didn’t say it was King, you must be imagining things!

So humped 5-1 off Celtic and 3rd place was Warburton’s objective? We didn’t set the bar very high. He was a joke, just like Pedro was a joke. And don’t tell me he got us out of the Championship, he did, but clearly he was expected to beat the rest of the shite in the SPL otherwise they’d have canned him after promotion and brought in somewhere they felt could put 3 wins together in the SPL.
 
He’s the chairman and biggest shareholder though.

If he had the most influence in getting rid of Warburton, why wasn’t that influence also on display when Robertson and Park opted for Pedro?

Then you remember King apparently wanted McInnes so we might have to accept that he may not be the best judge when it comes to footballing matters.

Because he obviously trusted them. Eventually bringing in a DoF suggests that trust was somewhat lost, and why wouldn’t it be, after all Pedro was a disaster and that whole thing was a costly error.
 
He said the Scottish Cup final was still “a great occasion”. I mean it’s soundbites like that which show he’s not a winner and never a Rangers manager. I can’t imagine Gerrard ever saying that after losing a cup final to Hibs. Compare MW’s feelings post cup final defeat to those of Souness, who after a cup final loss, stormed off the pitch and binned his runners up medal, telling his players that 2nd best meant fùck all to him and simply wasn’t good enough.

Warburton’s time was up for me when after a draw at St. Johnstone he said he was happy because a point away from home against a top six side was always a good result.

I thought then, “You’re finished.”
 
I know, Mark Allen was the one responsible for bringing Gerrard, I didn’t say it was King, you must be imagining things.

So humped 5-0 off Celtic and 3rd place was Warburton’s objective? We didn’t set the bar very high. He was a joke, just like Pedro was a joke. And don’t tell me he got us out of the Championship, he did, but clearly he was expected to beat the rest of the shite in the SPL otherwise they’d have canned him after promotion and brought in somewhere they felt could put 3 wins together in the SPL.

Fair enough, my view is that King acted on advice and is ultimately responsible, good or bad.

Warburton came in when were properly hopeless, couldn’t even win the championship despite our massive budgetary advantage. He got us back where we belong, but ultimately he was not at the level required to be a winning team again.
 
Warburton’s time was up for me when after a draw at St. Johnstone he said he was happy because a point away from home against a top six side was always a good result.

I thought then, “You’re finished.”

Absolutely. I won’t even lie or attempt to save face, i bought into his nonsense and stood behind him longer than most. It was after 4-0 at Tynecastle I shifted firmly into the MW our camp.
 
Fair enough, my view is that King acted on advice and is ultimately responsible, good or bad.

Warburton came in when were properly hopeless, couldn’t even win the championship despite our massive budgetary advantage. He got us back where we belong, but ultimately he was not at the level required to be a winning team again.

Yeah but in all honesty mate it’s not that big of an achievement, the Championship is horrendous and we had a colossal financial advantage over the opposition. The position we were in before his arrival says a lot more about Ally’s ineptitude than it does about Waburton’s abilities. He still deserves credit for cleaning that mess up, but he was clearly expected to take us into the SPL and then have us finishing second at the very least, King himself said he didn’t expect to be competing with teams outside of Celtic when we returned to the SPL. He just wasn’t up to it though.

As for King, he’ll be required to sign off on any big moves or changes within the club, just like any chairman. A lot of club chairmen will act on advice from others, but clearly the MW and Pedro eras would have really dented that trust. The Pedro deal in particular will never make sense to me, ever.
 
Yeah but in all honesty mate it’s not that big of an achievement, the Championship is horrendous and we had a colossal financial advantage over the opposition. The position we were in before his arrival says a lot more about Ally’s ineptitude than it does about Waburton’s abilities. He still deserves credit for cleaning that mess up, but he was clearly expected to take us into the SPL and then have us finishing second at the very least, King himself said he didn’t expect to be competing with teams outside of Celtic when we returned to the SPL. He just wasn’t up to it though.

As for King, he’ll be required to sign off on any big moves or changes within the club, just like any chairman. A lot of club chairmen will act on advice from others, but clearly the MW and Pedro eras would have really dented that trust. The Pedro deal in particular will never make sense to me, ever.

I agree.

Ally McCoist remains a hero of mine for how great he was as a player but he led us to our darkest and most embarrassing days as a manager.
 
I agree.

Ally McCoist remains a hero of mine for how great he was as a player but he led us to our darkest and most embarrassing days as a manager.

I love Ally, worshipped him as a kid, met him too and he was just as nice as you’d imagine him to be. I still appreciate that he put up with some horrendous shite while he was in charge here, but nothing can mask his ineptitude as a manager and there’s no excuse for players taking the piss the way they did under his tenure, that was all on him.

I just can’t imagine Steven Gerrard letting his players stroll in, have a kick about and eat a couple of rolls and sausage, and then dropping his kegs to let them take shots at his bare arse.
 
Slimey arsehole who never really understood the demands of being a Ranger. And that's despite having one of our best captains in the modern era stood beside him.

Says a lot about both of them.

As does the fact that Warburton still talks about us in interviews. Biggest gig he'll ever have in his life.
 
Talked a good game, a bit like Ally, but ultimately, he didn't command the qualities required to take us back to the top.......

A decent Championship manager at best.
 
mo johnston compared us to brazil during halftime at the sc semi final

If I recall correctly, he had Lennon beside him in the studio. He was practically laughing at how dominant Rangers were...

Regards Warburton, loved him when he started, watched every interview he did. Was at Hearts away when we were handed our arses in a plate, knew it was over then.
 
Joe Garner was never a Mark Warburton player in his life. No finesse, no skill, no tactical discipline, could barely strike a ball cleanly.

But he still spent £1.8m on him.

After the first transfer window, not a lot of his transfer business made sense.

For all his faults in implementing it, his aim was to play high tempo, technical football.

Then he started signing players with no football brain(Michael O'Halloran), 3 unfit midfielders(Rossiter, Kranjcar, Barton), a utility striker(Joe Garner) and an ancient centre half(Clint Hill).

Really made no sense.
 
After the first transfer window, not a lot of his transfer business made sense.

For all his faults in implementing it, his aim was to play high tempo, technical football.

Then he started signing players with no football brain(Michael O'Halloran), 3 unfit midfielders(Rossiter, Kranjcar, Barton), a utility striker(Joe Garner) and an ancient centre half(Clint Hill).

Really made no sense.

The crucial flaw with his high tempo technical football though was the complete inability to set up a defence.

He’s the embodiment of an academy coach where it’s all about young guys playing pretty little triangles to develop their ball skills without any great pressure to get results.

Once asked to actually do so, especially at a club like ours where we’re expected to win virtually every game, he flounders.

In his mind winning the Scottish Championship, getting us to a cup final and steering us to third place in the top flight was a big achievement.

From what I’ve read he still believes that to be true.

He succeeded at Brentford because there was no real expectation on them to achieve much of anything. Survival would have been seen as a good season so getting them to the play offs was a massive over achievement.

At Forest the playoffs was the expectation and he floundered again.

QPR is probably a better fit for him because realistically the playoffs probably weren’t the goal at the outset.

A mid table Championship side is about his level, IMO.
 
Still struggling to see the issue in having a pro cup final match against a talented youth squad when the Championship season had finished long before the game with Hibs?


I think the issue was the fact we played our last match that season before the cup final on the 1st May whilst Hibs had the play-offs, which iirc was at least 4 or 5 matches. It wasn't his fault we had no league games of course but there should have been more friendlies or such like played, if only to keep the players fitness levels up. When it came time for the final the Hibs players looked so much more match fit than we did and that was down to lack of matches on our part. I still can't bring myself to watch anything of that game and it's kind of ruined the memory of the SF too, though of course I'm glad we won that one. The first goal we conceded in the final in particular was like something you'd see being scored in a Sunday morning kick-about up the park. Totally embarrassing.

I don't wish Warburton any ill-will but when he went it was time to go. He really had been found out by then.
 
I think the issue was the fact we played our last match that season before the cup final on the 1st May whilst Hibs had the play-offs, which iirc was at least 4 or 5 matches. It wasn't his fault we had no league games of course but there should have been more friendlies or such like played, if only to keep the players fitness levels up. When it came time for the final the Hibs players looked so much more match fit than we did and that was down to lack of matches on our part. I still can't bring myself to watch anything of that game and it's kind of ruined the memory of the SF too, though of course I'm glad we won that one. The first goal we conceded in the final in particular was like something you'd see being scored in a Sunday morning kick-about up the park. Totally embarrassing.

I don't wish Warburton any ill-will but when he went it was time to go. He really had been found out by then.

I was assuming the issue raised by the previous poster was with the choice of opposition in the first place.

The truth is that I don't think we won a league match after beating Celtic; we'd won the league and Challenge Cup the week before and, as far as the players were concerned, the season was done.

I took pelters for suggesting that Hibs going through to the play-off final was advantageous for us. In the event they got beat and approached the final with an energy and motivation that'd be lacking if they'd had an eye on that game.
 
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