Appointing Warburton Is Not Such A Half-Baked Idea

MARK Warburton, the new manager of the Rangers Tribute Act is indeed an interesting character. Knowing very little about him, I had a look at his Wikipedia entry. OK, Wiki entries have to be taken with a healthy dose of scepticism, but, assuming it is mostly true - well, he doesn't exactly fit the accepted Ibrox model.

 

For a start, he wasn't impressed by Jock Wallace's methods, of which he got first-hand experience as a Leicester City youth player. He has no top-flight experience - but, the lack of a football pedigree didn't prevent Bill Struth from becoming a Rangers icon.

 

I did not, however, realise what a terrific track record he has in developing young players; this augers well for his Ibrox future, since not developing young talent is one of the reasons for the RTA being in the mess in which they currently find themselves.

 

Warburton also had a spell as Sporting Director at Brentford. The Sporting Director/Head Coach scenario is a continental one, not widely practiced in UK football. Indeed, in Scotland, the single example I can think of is at Hearts.

 

I don't know if the RTA will go down that route, given the finances of the club probably not. But, since Warburton will probably be given time to put his personal stamp on playing matters at Ibrox and at Murray Park - I would reckon, if Frank McParland, who was Sporting Director at Griffin Park, after Warburton became manager, doesn't quickly follow Warburton and Weir to Glasgow, there will not be such an appointment.

 

The position of Davie Weir will be interesting. Here is a former Club Captain, an Ibrox Legend, returning to the club. John Greig is back, there are "Real Rangers Men" in the board room - maybe, after the fun and games since 2012, finally, the RTA is on course to be in a position where we can again refer to the Club as 'Rangers'.

 

Another aspect of Warburton's CV is his spell as a city trader. The man clearly has cojones. He will almost certainly not be given megabucks to use in player recruitment for a while, if ever, but, he will, if the position ever changes, surely handle the financial side of the job well.

 

In his city career, he was apparently trading up to £2 BILLION per day; with that experience, gambling several £ millions on a player will not phase him.

 

With the manager's position sorted out, that's another box ticked for the Kingsmen. Now the men in the Blue Room can settle down to sorting things out with MASH, making the necessary repairs to the Stadium and getting the finances in order, to best support their new management team.

 

All seems set fair, however, as David Weir will surely tell Mark Warburton, raised on years of success and with a feeling of entitlement to wins and trophies, the Bears will quickly become restless if, as seems likely, it takes a wee while for the new regime to bed in and get the players to buy into their ideas.

 

The next year will be very interesting indeed.