Means nothing at all, really. If you know your employer is looking to replace you and there are other options on the table then you are going to at least explore them. I know I would in my job
Means nothing at all, really. If you know your employer is looking to replace you and there are other options on the table then you are going to at least explore them. I know I would in my job
He was doing a great job initially, maybe until about February in Scotland's second tier. It was clear for us all to see though that other managers had him completely sussed tactically.
He couldn't even set up a team to beat the likes of St Johnstone or Ross County at home and took 2 absolute batterings off of Hearts.
Think we all knew he was going nowhere after the second game at Tynecastle. Humped off them a few weeks earlier and we were all maybe expecting a change of tactics or even a decent reaction - nope, humped again.
The board are far from blameless and the whole situation was mired with their 'wait and see' policy they seemed to favour.
As you say, ANY misgivings or doubts about Warburton and he should've been out the door pronto however harsh or hard it would be.
The board allowed it to fester however they must've been flabbergasted when Warburton asked at a board meeting for £1m on a 30 year old winger from Aberdeen when we were crying out for a centre half, a proper central midfielder and a striker.
It might have been self preservation on Warburton's part in regards to Forest but he openly lied to us about his meeting when he was rumbled that week. He sat there at a club press conference and treated the support with utter contempt.
I commend MW for what he achieved initially. Brought in a lot of decent players in a short amount of time and took us comfortably out of the championship, got some sort of infrastructure in place and turned auchenhowie back into a training complex as opposed to the glorified holiday camp it was when McCoist was in charge. In the initial months we also played fantastically entertaining football.
As far as preparing and transitioning us from a championship side to a top flight side goes? I've already mentioned the signings in another post, but all in all he was a disaster. He also showed himself to be tactically incapable of mixing it up against run of the mill SPL managers most of whom had him easily sussed. We were beaten into submission by an Iain Cathro led Hearts side for fecks sakes!
As far as the sound bites go, no man who describes that cup final as "still a great occasion" is fit to be Rangers manager, that's loser talk. Guys like Souness spoke to having no use for runners up medals and binning them, it may sound petty but that is a winner, to winners second is nothing, especially when facing an Alan Stubbs led promotion failing Hibs side.
I agree mate, and as I say he did lose the plot near the end. TBH, I loved Hyndman and Toral as players but even then I thought they were not the type we needed at that point in the season. I'd have been going all out for Hyndman and a proper bruising defensive mid. I actually said after Toral's first game that he looked a good 3 or 4 months off fitness wise
Honestly just find it so mindnumbing the whole "snake!!!" patter that comes out from the usual suspects whenever his name's mentioned on here. Like grow up man. As we both are alluding to, it was a very grey situation
You are right mate, he definitely didn't have it in him to be a Rangers manager long term. But he wasn't a "disaster" - he took over with us 3rd in the Championship and left us on course for second in the SPL - with a squad the next manager could raise funds from. Like, it literally is not a "disaster" in any way shape or form
I think the whole Warburton saga just shows how there is little middle ground there is for anyone at the club. I personally felt his media dealings were transparent-he gave them nothing and you just knew that wouldn't work when it got tighter for him.
He surprised me off the bat I thought it would have taken longer for his "vision" to take a grip instead he nailed it right away. But such an expansive style of football requires you to be a lot better than most of the opposition and in the top tier that was always going to be harder. Of course he botched the changes in personnel and had to go back the way.
Ultimately he did the double whammy on the support not only failing in the role in their eyes but betraying them by looking to go elsewhere.
But I do believe to some extent the whole club got the relaunch back into the top flight wrong-expectation was raised beyond reality and we set ourselves up for a fall. The signings we made did not reflect any real ambition or intent.
In almost every area our squad has improved this window, we just need to wait and see if our Manager has what it takes.
Unfortunately judging on him on his first 6 months it's not looking good enough to me.
I feel so let down by Davie Weir I try not to think about it too much, but as a trophy hoarding Rangers captain it is utterly perplexing that the guy he was assisting didn't seem to understand that we don't settle for a point away from home and runners up medals.
And I'm with you there. I think Pedro gets it 100%, im just not sure he has the managerial quality to match his admirable enthusiasm and charisma.
I think right there is a fundamental point which I disagree with you on Bilko. I believe Warburton understood what was required totally-he chose to do it a certain way. It's a matter of style- Warburton believed totally he would outplay the majority of teams I think he tried to offset emerging players in the top tier with more experienced players to meet the greater challenge. He didn't pay great attention to the defence but he never did although there are rumours some of his signings in that area weren't delivered. I suspect he thought we would make 2nd.
Despite the notion of Plan A only he clearly did in key games after poor results change it-Celtic,Aberdeen and Hearts were proof of a more direct and tighter style. It worked albeit not in a way that I think would have longer term however after that it was curtains anyway-we slipped again and he left under a cloud.
I saw a manager with obvious flaws but at least some understanding of being able to either change or set up a team.
Pedro has talked a wonderful game-fed into the fan's beliefs on what has went wrong and how only winning matters. That's the easy bit-he's clearly an intelligent man. However he hasn't been able to show a Plan A-it's changed many times and not out of good results...we are currently swapping between a genuine 4-4-2 and a 4-4-1-1 and many are suggesting either way the midfield is too exposed. He hasn't shown the basics in set up against Celtic and his style last season was to give up possession and sit off teams-not something we are used to seeing. This season we still need to see how his style develops.
Whether Pedro gets it or not is one thing but whether he can do the management thing to the right level is another. Last season for whatever reasons he delivered historically bad results with a squad he was well aware of it's capabilities that sends alarm bells ringing.
What's done is done but it doesn't matter if you get it or not-it's what you do to deliver success-Pedro wil get his chance now to prove his doubters wrong.
That month in September killed Warburton and he was found out completely
Draw at Kilie, pumped at Parkhead and then 0-0 with Ross County. It clearly wasn't working. As Walter always said, it's about winning at Rangers. 3 defeats in a row and instead of sacrificing his ideals, we went up to Pittodrie and lost again (although it was stupidly unlucky)
doing the same thing
As I said, I did respect him in a way for how single minded he was but at the same time it doesn't wash at Ibrox
Parkhead was horrendous but I was willing to put it down to mixture of everything that could go wrong did go wrong. I felt we were ridiculously unlucky at Pittodrie where we outplayed them for huge chunks but were undone by a long ball down the middle and then a horrendous refereeing error by - you guessed it! - John Beaton.
Strangely the game where alarm bells began to ring was St Johnstone at home in late October where we simply ran out of ideas after half time. Every time Wes got the ball, St Johnstone put a man on both central defenders and both full backs to stop him playing out. Neither Holt or Halliday dropped back to take possession and Wes was terrified to kick it long. The team were utterly frozen in fear that night as the crowd howled their disapproval. A team utterly devoid of any imagination or leadership to take charge onfield. It was the equivalent of watching them needing their hands held and told what to do and everything would be alright.
And yet three days later we absolutely pumped Kilmarnock with a display of brilliant football
Tynecastle mk II was the breaking point. He had learned absolutely nothing from the first beating. He then withdrew our best player and told us he had to protect Bournemouth's asset. We were dominated in the middle of the park.
Joey Barton cost Warburton his job. He handled it all wrong. He handled it like a dispute in an office...........
If we lose to that lot, I want our players to be falling out at training next day. And cost the club a small fortune getting him off the books.
Then there was the Hyndman substitution made to take care of Bournemouth's player..........
Also, he went on about "value" whilst only really looking to the most expensive market in the world. Whilst recouping zero in transfers out.
I think Pedro will come good. Yes, he's had more than his fair share of bad results thus far - but, he knows what he wants.
HE talked a good game, but it clearly wasn't working and he was either to stubborn to change, or just didn't know how to fix ti.
bump bump bump
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