It’s certainly been a testing couple of weeks for Mark Warburton. And, with the Joey Barton situation dragging on, the pressure is only set to mount.
Mark Warburton’s dream job is quickly descending into a nightmare. The outpouring of negativity that followed Rangers’ 5-1 humiliation in the first top flight Old Firm derby in four years was bad enough but, now, the Joey Barton saga is threatening to destabilise everything the former Brentford manager has built in his 15 months in the Ibrox hotseat.
In truth, it may have been a little naïve to expect Rangers, out of the top flight for four seasons, to storm back in style and immediately resume their to-ing and fro-ing title tussle with a dominant Celtic.
The decline of the Scottish Premiership has been well documented over recent years, but Rangers’ current squad shows how far they, statistically the most successful domestic club in Europe, have fallen.
36-year-old Kenny Miller (below), after all, still headlines the striking options at Warburton’s disposal, backed up by Joe Garner, who scored six times in 41 Championship appearances for Preston last season, and former Sunderland youngster Martin Waghorn. The days of Ally McCoist, even Shota Arverladze and Kris Boyd, could hardly feel further away.
“I’m not under-estimating the importance of the result but no one has died,” Warburton said in the aftermath of Rangers’ submission at Celtic Park, according to the Daily Record. But football isn’t merely a game north of the border.
It’s a religion, a way of life: Warburton’s comments, emotionally charged and ill-thought out though they were, suggests the importance of the result to the Ibrox faithful was almost lost on him. And that’s without mentioning his pre-game sparring, or lack of, in which he continually played down the rivalry, continually rolling out the ‘just another three points’ spiel.
Training ground rows and on-pitch capitulations are hardly the calling card of a manager in control. Now, Joey Barton’s three week suspension (below) has added another chapter to a saga that has already escalated beyond Warburton’s restraint.
“They’ve just had their pants pulled down by their biggest rivals and he’s coming out moaning about negativity?” former Celtic striker Chris Sutton said on BT Sport, reported by the Daily Record.
“The job’s too big for him in my view. This isn’t Brentford. This isn’t the City. And he’s coming out with ‘it’s the best performance of the season?’ Do me a favour!”
Rangers fans will hate to admit it, but Sutton may be right.
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