Where Did It All Go Wrong?

David Edgar looks at Mark Warburton’s time at Rangers and tries to pinpoint why it didn’t work out...

The punk poet Patrick Fitzgerald once wrote: “Don’t ask me to be your hero; I will only let you down.” As news broke of Mark Warburton and Davie Weir’s departure from Ibrox – and then the circumstances surrounding it – I couldn’t help but think of that quote and how true it is.

From Magic Hats and happy days to desperate disappointment and the switch to a new type of loaf. How could this previously popular manager and his legendary assistant fall so quickly from such a high pedestal? As the fans filed out of Ibrox after the recent 1-1 draw with Ross County, we didn’t know we’d witnessed the last hurrah from this management team yet, almost to a man, we knew it was over. In truth, it had been coming for a while but all doubts had been erased by another dismal night at Tynecastle.

The 4-1 pasting from a Hearts side who had been winless in eight previous matches and contained nine players signed within the last fortnight crystallised many fans’ fears about the Warburton Project. That night we saw all the flaws that had haunted us – pitifully weak defending, sterile possession that led nowhere and a meek acceptance of the home side’s superiority when the going got tough. This was Warburton’s Rangers laid bare. There would be no coming back. It had all been so different, not so long ago.

When Mark Warburton strode into the manager’s office at Ibrox, his very modernity seemed to cut through the staleness which had enveloped our football operations. He spoke tremendously. Gone were the nightmarish Ally-esque comments about no easy matches, worrying about the opposition, Alan will have them fired up for it and so on. Instead was a man who had a vision of what he wanted, how he was going to do it and what it would produce.