Reformation Bear

If he's coming away with this randomness excuse shit, and mathematical analysis shit when trying to coach the first team squad then no fucking wonder the team can't defend properly, can't compete or create properly in midfield and can't fucking well score enough goals. Apart from providing half-baked (in fact not even half baked) excuses for failing to do their jobs (winning a damn sight more games of football than they've been doing) and for Warburton for failing to do his job effectively I take the view that its downright insulting that a Club of the stature and history of Rangers is reduced to publishing lame excuses of blaming randomness and of taking comfort in some sort of mathematical analysis. In letting Warburton's quotes be published just what do the Executives and Directors of the Club think they are accomplishing. Do they seriously think the majority of Supporters are going to accept this sort of diversionary shite, nod their heads, and hope that randomness just goes away and that the manager can make the maths work and produce a goal-scoring, winning team that actually shows some fight and claws its way up to 2nd? I mean, what the fuck does King make of this managerial clap-trap? What do the Directors make of it? What does the MD/CEO or whatever the fuck he is make of it? Someone at Ibrox must have thought that this was a good enough set of explanations by Warburton to be published. Did they not think this might just bring a heap of ridicule not only on Warburton but on the Club? Or has it been a conscious act to let this guff be published on the basis that its producing yet more reasons for releasing Warburton of his duties on the basis that stuff like this, plus poor results, and poor judgement bringing in players (the list could go on) eventually produces a outcome where no more can be accepted and he has to go? Or - perhaps more likely - its been published with nobody senior at Ibrox reading it through and thinking about how it will be received by the Support and by the media. Maybe cock-up over conspiracy as King and the Board seem to have disappeared.

He's tried magician - and its not working. He's now relying on mathematical analysis. Phew! Sure would like to have been in the meeting with King and the Board when he sought to hide under the skirts of randomness and then postulated on some mathematical theory explanations for failing to score enough goals. Would have been a short meeting I suspect. Forget the magic hat. It was just a convenient illusion. I'm not sure which is worse, magic or mathematician. Either way it seems a very long way from football reality. The plain fact is we concede too many goals and fail to score enough. Maybe a bit more good old fashioned managerial focus on instilling a winning mentality would be good for Warburton to purse - if he is able.

It's all about numbers and how the manager chooses to use them. I think. Maybe its less to do with magic hats than numbers. From the Rangers website today (Weds) and quote from Warburton.............." "Warburton says he can’t put his finger on whether it is luck or confidence which is affecting his side in front of goal. But he pointed to research that Matthew Benham the owner of Brentford did while he and Davie Weir were in charge at the West London club. Warburton explained: “I think randomness is a big part of it, we learnt a lot from our previous owner at Brentford who was a mathematician and we learnt a lot from him in terms of how we look at games." Scoring goals - ore perhaps more precisely - coaching players into scoring goals may now rest on getting the maths right. Or just hiding behind the unkonown unknown of randomness. I bet hiding behind randomness would go down well with King and the Board. Forget the magic hat. It was just a convenient illusion. I'm not sure which is worse, magic or mathematician. Either way it seems a very long way from football reality. The plain fact is we concede too many goals and fail to score enough. Maybe a bit more good old fashioned managerial focus on instilling a winning mentality would be good for Warburton to purse - if he is able.

At some point in time very soon all this commitment, possession, passing around the pitch and so on need to be converted game after game into goals.- and goals that win games. And not just marginally or in the last few minutes of a game having played on the edge of success or failure for most of the game. The managerial competence of Warburton aside, for the sake of the Club this season it sure would be good if the players on Sunday got into a mindset of not just winning the game but winning it well - then going and doing just that. Then repeat it for the rest of the season. Regardless of Warburton's rhetoric and management style its time the players took more personal responsibility and collective responsibility as a team and got more of a grip on scoring goals and winning games. Sunday would be a good time for that to start to happen.

I'm sure if we qualify the fans would want the team to give it a real go and do they best they can, albeit recognising that we don't exactly have a strong squad. Who knows, Rossiter might be fit by then and make a positive impact. Kranjcar might be back. McHardie might make an impact transitioning out of his loan spell into the first team. So too Jordan Thomson if he returns from his loan spell. I know, I know, there is some stretching of the bounds of believability here and it could be a difficult time but the point is simply that if we quality then we have a go with whoever we've got available. Another point would be it would sort out pre-season training. Any way you look at it we should be at least be ready for competitive matches by the time the next season starts so no excuses for not hitting the new season running. Before all of that though there remains the small matter of actually finishing high enough in the league, or win the SC to actually qualify. Counting chickens before hatched and all that.

I see. Thanks. Wasn't sure if the losing SC finalist got the third spot.

Something must be up with the Board musn't it? If Miller is willing to stay on (which he seems to be) then why would the Club not make an offer to him? As far as I can see all that's happened is some talks have taken place but I've not seen any reports of any offer being made for Miller to consider. So don't know if its terms that are the stumbling block or whether it is something a lot more fundamental like not even having made an offer yet. If no offer has been made, and the Club is stalling on more discussions or on making an offer, then to my mind the inference is there is enough doubt in the collective mind of the Board not to proceed. It seems unreal. Unbelievable even. I doubt if there would be too many who would argue that Miller - at 37 remember - has been consistently the best performer in the team this season. Arguably by some distance too. Put another way, could Rangers really afford to lose him either as a player or as a player/coach? Just who does the stalling Board think would step into Miller's shoes and fill the striker role, the mentor role, the sheer experience of Rangers and Scottish football role? There must be a problem because if there was no problem then the deal would be done. Miller of course could push the issue by indicating that time is running out before he needs to start exploring other options for next season. Cat in among the Board pigeons at that point. Unless the Board has some absolutely boiler plate reasons why they refuse to offer him a new contract on reasonable terms. As a sidebar, it was notable that after the defeat by Hearts then the further stumbling against Ross County, the Club kept Miller away from the post match interviews. Whether it was because it was not his turn or whether it was for some other reason is not known. But when things have gotten tough on the pitch with poor results it seems to me to be often the case that the Club wheel out Miller and / or Wallace to try to provide some assurance to the Support. Not last week though, we had Toral and Holt and Tav.

If I'm following this correctly all 3 Scottish qualifiers go into the first round. Which means it would be the teams finishing in 2nd and 3rd in the league plus the winners of the Scottish Cup (or the losing finalist if the winner is already in either the CL or the Europa Cup). Is that right? If so then if we slipped to 4th in the league and didn't win the SC or make the final then no European football next season. Is that correct? If so, then its by no means a slam dunk or anything like it under Warburton that we'd finish 2nd or 3rd or that we'd win the SC. The next few business end of the season months sure are going to produce quite a test for players who have not exactly stood up well to the tests this season so far.

Unfortunately the ability to be an effective goal-scoring side in attack of any nature is sadly missing from the Rangers teams that Warburton produces. He has not been able to produce sides which regularly and meaningfully threaten the opposition goal. Too often the opposition goalkeepers go untested for large portions of games. Warburton's team selections, tactics, coaching and leadership do not lend themselves to the side being good in any form of attack. The evidence has been before us and it has not been improving. An event has occurred in the form of Warburton's coaching, management and leadership of the side which is not necessarily to our advantage. He does not appear to be able to transform the team into the winners a Rangers team needs to be.

For the sake of the Club, and the opportunity to progress in the Cup I hope we win. For Warburton anything other than winning would presumably put him on even thinner ice with King, the Board and very probably quite a lot of the Support. It would give the media a field day to have a go not only at him and the players, but the Club in general. I trust neither Warburton or the players will underestimate Morton. Yes I know we'll be treated to the usual pre-match stuff from Warburton about respecting the opposition, that they will be well organised, that they will have a clear game plan and all that guff. Yes I know that Warburton will parade his usual pre-match guff about the players having rested well, trained well, prepared well and so on but frankly he has not done anywhere near enough to instil in them enough of a winning mentality so all the pre-match guff counts for very little unless it is translated into goals and wins in actual games. I guess the team and Warburton will be under intense pressure for each game from here on in until the end of the season. Whether they can cope with that and deliver a good cup run and recover back to 2nd in the league is anyone's guess. First things first though and a win on Sunday.

The interview he gave the other day which was posted as a Q&A seemed to me to be laced with some tension and stress when Warburton was responding to questions. The way I see it is its only a matter of time before the media hounds start probing very strongly as the points gap between ourselves and C...... grows, and if we fail to climb back to second, or worse, slip further. It seems inevitable the media will question his track record of not enough wins /points shipped / goals conceded / lack of goals scored / point out the frustration building in the Support, question whether he still has the confidence of the Boardroom and so on. They may probe about whether its likely to more of the same next season because he can't afford to improve the squad very much, and does he believe a credible title challenge can be mounted next season. He's managed to create (or allow to be created) ripe conditions for the media to really have a go if they wanted to. I doubt they'd be able to resist it even if the bigger insult to Rangers and Warburton might be to largely ignore it and behave as they would any other also-ran team in the SPFL which would mean in the eyes of the media that's what we had become under King and Warburton.

With the substance of this squad, even allowing for some departing and other low-budget players coming in, and under Warburton command it seems to me it would be a big struggle to get beyond preliminary rounds. As I see it its just about being seen - visible again - in a European competition. We'll get the 'we'll learn' guff if we go out early to some team we've probably never heard of before with a salve of corporate conscience of 'at least we got into Europe'. It does not seem to me to be remotely credible that Warburton could lead the team on a European run. We can't even find a way past RC in 3 attempts this season. We ship goals on a freebie 'have a goal a game' basis against any sort of opposition (a lot more when the opposition try a lot harder), and the squad has no track record - or much ability either for that matter - to create and score anywhere near enough goals. It's one thing - and a very bad thing - to be distant also rans in the SPFL, and on current form likely to remain that way for some seasons to come. Its another layer on that to then not even progress much beyond the starting gate in a European competition, even if it gives some sort of publicity fig leaf visibility of the Club again in a European competition. All that said, I still hope we qualify for Europe and we'd just have to see how the dice roll when games come along. Who knows, there might be a change of manager before then.

They summarise games of toil punctuated by significant disappointments. If these stats are put in front of King and the Board - and I assume the Board is well aware of them - then they must surely be testing the boundaries of acceptable performance for Rangers even allowing for this being the first season back in the top flight after promotion. If they are tacitly acceptable to the Board, which I assume they are for now, then presumably stock will be taken at the end of the season or earlier if it becomes too much of a risk that we don't climb the table to be 2nd at the end of the season or if it looks like European football next season may not be achieved. They do not make for good reading. More than that, for Rangers they should be considered unacceptable. Wonder which journos are going to be bold enough to probe Warburton on these at a future press conference. Wonder which, if any, Board members or the General Manager has sat down with Warburton and asked for an explanation and asked for an action plan to produce a significant improvement.

I don't see in him a manager who knows how to instil enough of a winning mentality in his squad. More of an organiser and analyst than he is an achiever in football management terms. I suspect we'll see a bit more of his strengths and weaknesses as the business end of the season unfolds. Games lost, points dropped, league position slipping is bound to have the media hounds probing repeatedly about whether he retains the support of King, the support of the Board, the support of the players, the support of shareholders, and the support of the Support. In doing so the media will be likely to test to see if he can handle the pressure of not only ceding the league to the other lot by a massive number of points, but now also slipping from 2nd and we're only at the start of Feb. It'll be quite a test for him to deal with alongside the test of massively improving what he gets out of the team in each game they play, and keep his Chairman happy by climbing the table to finish 2nd. No pressure then for Warburton is there. But then again he's his own architect on this.

To the OP's question - I could not offer any reasons why we should be happy with this shit show continuing much longer. But its possible it might carry on longer, maybe even a lot longer or at least until Warburton's contract expires or unless he decides before then that his future lies elsewhere. I can't see the Board deciding to sack him, even if he fails to get 2nd place this season and even if he fails to get European football for next season. I just don't think they would be prepared to pay the compensation. It would be likely to be more than Warburton who'd be affected. There's Weir too. If some of Warburton's entourage also left (McParland, Mulholland etc) then there could be a risk of a number of gaps to be filled in a short time by whoever took over. Which then risks a big disruption to preparations for next season. I don't think King and the Board have the balls or nerve to remove Warburton even if it risked a reduction in ST sales and attendances at Ibrox for next season. They could prove me wrong of course. I'm not that impressed when Warburton etc talk about establishing a football philosophy. With the track record so far this season of far too many results with points dropped, inability to defend properly game after game and utterly unable to score anywhere near enough goals whatever philosophy he is trying to cultivate and implement bears more resemblance to synchronised sinking than it does to transforming a squad into credible title-challengers. Warburton's leadership and management of the squad seems to me to becoming mired in the quicksands of mediocrity and sheer inability to do what it takes to win enough games. There is nowhere near enough of a winning mentality. If there were then we'd not be encouraged by Warburton to take comfort in the amount of commitment shown yesterday, or to note that they train well, prepare well and are unlucky not to get their just rewards from games where points are dropped. History is written by the winners. The also-rans just talk about what they did in competing to be also-rans. Imo Warburton has not proved to be an effective motivator of the team. If he had far stronger leadership attributes then we would be spending a lot less time agonising over point after point lost this season and a slipping league position. He has not, imo, been able to find what size and flavour of carrot works for his squad, and what length and diameter of stick is most effective. Nor for that matter has King in relation to motivating Warburton to significantly raise his managerial game. But then King has become Chairman Invisible hasn't he.

I see from an article on the Rangers website today (Sunday) he is stressing that he hopes the commitment of the side was clear. Well not so committed, or well trained, or well prepared, or well coached, or well motivated, or well led to the point where they scored enough goals to win the game......or win enough games over the season so far that were winnable. Whatever else he is doing or not doing, saying or not saying at the Rangers Training Centre and in dressing rooms at games he has not, and still is not, instilling anywhere near enough of a winning mentality. If he were then we'd not be reading or hearing statements from him encouraging us to look at the levels of commitment, or observing that we didn't get our just rewards, will learn and so on (you've heard his post-match analysis this season). He has to try to find something positive to say after games where points are carelessly dropped or dropped because the team was not determined enough or able enough to score enough goals to win. I'm sure he'd rather be reflecting on what went well having won. So would we. Gazing at effort, and praising the effort is one thing. But its very far away from being good enough at Rangers when its games won that really count. If he is able to instil a winning mentality good enough to secure 2nd in the league this season then in my opinion he as an awful long way to go to raise his managerial game. As for creating a credible title challenging side for next season, his track record this season does not provide me with any inspiration that he is on course to create the core of a vastly better squad for next season. Commitment without having enough quality and enough motivation and enough nous to deliver produces strivers. It does not guarantee the production of achievers. Same goes for the manager.

3 weaknesses within come to mind. One is Warburton''s inability to coach and instil a winning mentality which, when coupled to the large number of signing failures, do not in my view make him the right person to manage Rangers. As long as he the manager and as long as he continues to perform as ineffectively has he has done this season we look like we are in for many seasons as title also-rans. A second is lack of enough money to invest in players of much better quality who can make a difference. And for that the focus of attention is King and the Board. They do not appear ready, able and willing to inject materially more money themselves or work anywhere near hard enough to find other sources of significant investment. They seem to have buried their collective Board head in the sand on finding more investment. The lack of sufficient investment in players is, imo, a fundamental weakness. If not remedied then it reinforces the risk that it may be many seasons before a credible title challenge can be mounted......and brings with it a risk that ST sales, and attendances at Ibrox will see a noticeable reduction as Supporters become a lot more selective about which games to go to. The third is communication. We kicked off the season under the banner of going for 55. Only to be snarkily told by Warburton not too long ago that nobody said when. When added to the more recent warnings from Warburton and Weir that we will need to be patient and to persevere and (as recently as Saturday) that it will be a slow building of the team, this also reinforces the thinking in Ibrox that its to be a long march to the next title. On the one hand we are asked to believe King and Warburton that 2nd is not the aim (other than for this season) and that they are determined to take Rangers back to the top even if they have no meaningful money to spend on better players. And on the other hand we get the patient, persevere, slow build message. The problem is the Support want the 55th title in quick time. Imo King, the Board and Warburton have spectacularly failed to transmit clear, honest and unmistakable message to the Support about what is financially possible in the King era, They hyped 'going for 55' and it was a false hype. It will be instructive to see and hear what line King and Warburton take in setting out the objective for the Club for next season. I suspect a lot of Supporters will be listening very carefully to what they have to say and chances are they will be listening with fresh memories of the false hype from this season, with fresh memories of how this season actually panned out for Warburton and the team, and with a keen ear to test just how honest and realistic the sales pitch is for next season.

He needed some game time didn't he. I guess he'll be getting a few more games this month and into early March. I mean there's a game on 12 March coming up which he'll be needed for.

I'm far from pleased with what we see from Warburton and the team this season. I'm concerned that between Warburton and King they take us into a long period of being also-rans, where fighting for 2nd becomes the norm and with Warburton's own admission of it being a slow building means the results we are seeing this season are set to continue for seasons to come. I hear his rhetoric about not being satisfied with 2nd and about acknowledging the history and tradition of the Club, but the teams he puts out, the players he signs and the results all point to me to someone who does not have the experience or leadership skills to build a title-challenging side. Results fall way short of his persistent rhetoric of training well, preparing well and so on and then bleating when the team does not get what he feels are its just rewards. It may be that his messaging intention - no matter how unpopular the message may be - is that we are to be prepared for a long wait before a title is won and that is that. If that's correct, then for me that does not fit with the ambition the Club should have. Unfortunately, to me he comes across as a performing like a clockwork management toy who has been wound up in the wrong football club playroom. Put more straightforwardly I don't see him as being fit to lead Rangers in producing a title-challenging side. He could of course prove me wrong. Time will tell.

I don't know if King and the Board could afford to sack Warburton. My sense is I doubt they could afford it and they would then hold their nerve on a change of manager until the end of the season unless Warburton himself elected to resign. If Warburton somehow pulled the football rabbit out of the hat and won 2nd place or got European football for next season then they may risk sticking with him next season until his contract runs out. But surely when they meet as a Board they must be seeing there is a real risk under Warburton this season of a disorderly retreat to a mid-table placing which gets neither 2nd nor Europe. It may not be enough so far to force them into a different approach even if it did cause some affordability problems but quite honestly how much longer are they prepared to bear the ineffective leadership and management of the team. Then again, maybe they were persuaded by the excuse on Weds that it was just a road bump, and today where Warburton declared himself pleased with so many aspects of the game.

Might be a few more revisions to the 'take stock' views after the game today. A speed bump on Weds against Hearts and another speed bump of sorts today. The team under Warburton is becoming more familiar with reverse gears than with forward gears,

There were some games - actually quite a few games - in the McCoist then McDowell eras where I was just numb when we scored a goal. Even more numb when we gave away a careless goal, usually from corner kicks which in the end I simply could not bear to watch. A kind of numb-like relief when we scored but well short of what should have been warm celebration. I thought on reflection that these were bad days not to be repeated in my lifetime (although there were distant memories from decades ago of a similar feeling but of course I was a lot younger then and the numb feelings seemed to disappear more quickly than they do nowadays). Maybe these types of days have not been relegated to history after all. Which would mean that Warburton is starting to rank alongside McCoist and McDowell.

Yes. None of which translate into points for the league table. But they do make for a top class rehearsal week after week of his presentation to King and the Board at the end of the season of the mitigating reasons why objectives were not met and why the season should be regarded as having not gone badly. I bet his powerpoint slides of stats, trends, analysis, strap lines and so on will be a masterclass. Those whose strengths are analytical in nature tend to be good at it. Those who are leaders and know how to get the fucking job done properly, on time and on budget may not have such fancy analytical slides. They just need some short words. Two words......job done.

.....and the message from Pollyanna central (aka MW) is..........he's pleased and won't criticise the team. But when the fit hits the shan then someone needs to stay late after school. He's the man responsible for results and team performances, but seems King and the Board are happy to let him continue with the risk of even more fit hitting even more shans for a while longer. It's the Support that's being dumped on though. (for fit read shit, for shan read fan).

We do indeed. Unfortunately Warburton's approach to the game, his leadership (such as it is), his management, coaching and motivation of the team seem to be taken straight from the self-sabotage football strategy book. Harsh? Yes. But there we are. It's all about opinions and mine is Warburton and Weir are nowhere near effective enough and the longer they stay in post, the more difficult this season looks like being. ..........with quite a recovery job then needed for next season. They could prove me wrong of course. Good for them if they did. But if today was meant to be evidence of an effective response after the shambles against Hearts then Warburton failed by such a distance that its not measureable.