Amidst the confusion created by a diabolical situation where there was a lot of confusion, the haze seems to have cleared now: Mark Warburton has indeed resigned from his post as the manager. The situation which was created was very awkward, with the club’s website confirming the departure of the 54-year-old whereas Warburton spoke in contrary of it. With just over 18 months into his job, he did do things just the way the doctor ordered, didn’t he?
Celtic have been scintillating this term, having managed a lead of 27 points over second-seeded Aberdeen and Rangers, with the latter one being placed third on goal difference. Catching the Bhoys was impossible but Warburton did manage to do a fantastic job ever since moving to the Ibrox Stadium; winning the Rangers a promotion in his first season and then upping their stature by taking them as high as second in the league table. He was handed a new contract which was to keep him with the Gers until 2019, but that didn’t pan out.
Taking nothing away from Warburton, one must admit that Rangers and Warburton were delusional and out of the context ever since the start of this season. They underestimated the gravity of the top tier of Scottish football and the former Brentford manager wasn’t backed up by the board or fellow assistants either.
His stepping down from the role was always on the cards after a shambolic 4-1 defeat at the hands of Hearts. His attacking arsenal had been blunt (Rangers have scored the fewest goals in the top five), midfield misfiring, and he could barely muster something spectacular from a dodgy defence, which meant that there was always going to be termination of the association of the club and the manager.
Time and again, Warburton had given hopeless and rubbish excuses for his defeats and the lack of good results away from home. He was always losing the plot since the start of the season and the team he has left is struggling, has a poor recruitment system and a dysfunctional board to worsen the grief. The lack of support from the fans has been very much justifiable as his failures kept stacking up: Teddy Bears had been one-dimensional, unproductive and consistently mediocre.
The result of such catastrophes is a total mess, so it wasn’t really surprising to see the way their association ending acrimoniously. Make no mistake; Warburton did come short of meeting the demands at Rangers, thus leading to another fruitless experiment to bite the dust, but he will still leave a legacy of helping the club back to the top tier.
