Mark Warburton: Rangers’ Unsung Hero
Mark Warburton is one of football’s good guys who started off as a successful trader in London before making the switch to the United States. As good as he was at that occupation, the main dream was to become a football manager – and he did just that.
After putting his trading career behind him, he started coaching part-time at an academy school. Warburton said to his wife: “We have the money in the bank, the house is paid for, our lifestyle won’t change. I want to do this: 10 years to achieve something in the game. It’s now or never.”
The Englishman travelled across Europe watching some of football’s elite clubs as he embarked on his journey to become a manager. Warburton came through the youth coaching set up at Watford before departing the club in 2010 after four years. The former defender went to Brentford in 2011 and was appointed as their first-team coach under caretaker Nicky Forster until the end of the season.
First managerial role in football
The London-born coach finally got his big break as a manager when he was appointed as Brentford boss on the December 10, 2013. Warburton had an excellent start to his managerial career becoming the first Brentford manager to win his first four games in charge.
The Bees went on an unbelievable 19-game-unbeaten run before Warburton suffered his first defeat as a manager in a 3-0 home loss to Wolves. Warburton’s debut season as a manager ended with success as he guided Brentford to automatic promotion to the English Championship finishing runners up with three games to spare.
The following season in the Championship, on February 10, it was announced that Warburton would be departing the club at the end of the season, due to disagreements with the owner Matthew Benham’s structural ideas on how he wanted to take the club going forward.
Despite the news of Warburton leaving the club – Brentford still managed to finish fifth in the league making the play-offs. The Bees suffered a 5-1 aggregate defeat to Middlesbrough in the play-off semi-finals and Warburton left the club shortly after that. Warburton’s stock was high as a manager and there were plenty of Championship clubs looking to snap up his signature.
When Rangers come calling – you don’t turn them down
It didn’t take long for him to get back into management and the club who were lucky enough to attain his services were Rangers Football Club. Warburton signed a three-year deal with the British giants and appointed Rangers legend David Weir as his assistant, who was also his assistant at Brentford.
The previous season, Rangers failed to get promotion out of the Scottish Championship after losing 6-1 to Motherwell on aggregate in the play-off final. The Gers released a staggering 15 players in the summer, which meant that Warburton had a MASSIVE rebuilding job on his hands.
Warburton made 11 summer signings and the only one who’s still at the club to this day is Rangers captain James Tavernier. The right-back has had an unbelievable career at Ibrox, and many of the Rangers support to this day are grateful that Warburton signed him nine years ago. It begs the question that if Warburton never signed Tavernier in 2015, would Rangers have achieved the things that they did?
James Tavernier’s key achievements
-Scottish Championship
-Scottish Challenge Cup
-Scottish Premiership
-Scottish Cup
-Scottish League Cup
-Europa League final
-Europa League top goalscorer 2021/2022 (seven goals)
-Europa League Team of the Season 2021/2022
-Holds the record as Britian’s highest scoring defender (134 senior goals)
-Inducted into the Rangers Hall of Fame in 2023
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Warburton ball was born – it was fun to attend Ibrox again
Warburton had a brilliant start to life at Ibrox, winning 11 of his first league games. The football was a breath of fresh air for the Rangers faithful to watch as it was an exciting possession-based style by playing out from the back with no fear. As a Rangers supporter, for the first time in years, the fans felt as though they were getting their money’s worth as Warburton’s football was incredibly entertaining. He brought the feel-good factor back to the club that had been missing for a long time.
Rangers ended up drawing Celtic in the Scottish Cup semi-final. Warburton’s first taste of the Britian’s most tense and fierce rivalry. Warburton’s men were hot favourites going into the game as under-fire boss Ronny Delia was feeling the heat from the Celtic supporters and media alike.
The game turned out to be one for the ages and an Old Firm classic as it finished 2-2 after extra time, with the game going to penalties. On his Old Firm debut, Warburton left Hampden Park as a winner as Tom Rogic blasted his penalty over the bar and Rangers won the shootout 5-4. Championship side Rangers defeated the Scottish Premiership champions Celtic – an historic result considering the circumstances. It was the first time in four years that Rangers had beaten the Parkhead club.
Rangers went onto win the Championship by 11 points and won the Challenge Cup beating Peterhead 4-0. The season did end on a sour note as Warburton’s men lost the Scottish Cup final to Hibs 3-2 due to a David Gray stoppage time header. Nonetheless, Warburton achieved what he set out to do and got Rangers back to the Premiership and managed to pick an Old Firm victory up along the way – it was job done.
Rangers’ return to the Premiership
Rangers kicked off the transfer window making a huge statement by signing Joey Barton. The season before, Barton helped Burnley win the English Championship and won the Championship Player of the Year award.
Apart from the hype surrounding Barton, it was an underwhelming transfer window as Warburton wasn’t exactly backed by the board. The club signed NINE free agents and Joe Garner was the only player the club paid a fee for. After the departure of Delia, the Hoops appointed Brendan Rodgers and there was a buzz surrounding Rangers’ rivals again.
The first Old Firm game of the season happened on September 10, and it ended in humiliating fashion as Celtic convincingly beat Rangers 5-1 at Parkhead. The fallout from the game continued days after, as Rangers’ marquee signing Barton was suspended by the club due to an incident on the training ground that occurred with Andy Halliday and the coaching staff. The former Newcastle player’s contract was terminated on 10 November with immediate effect.
Barton and Warburton are two totally different characters. It’s not a surprise that they never saw eye-to-eye during the midfielder’s short spell in Glasgow. Signing the controversial Barton is a decision that the former QPR manager regrets to this day. It was a tough start for Warburton in the Premiership as Rangers fell 19 points behind on New Years Eve, after losing the second Old Firm league game of the season 2-1.
Warburton’s departure from Rangers
On 10 February 2017, the news broke late Friday night that Warburton along with David Weir and head of recruitment Frank McParland had resigned from Rangers.
Speaking on the ScotScore Podcast, Warburton denied he and his coaching staff resigned and the situation was handled ‘appallingly’ and that they were actually sacked.
He said: “I’ll never say anything derogatory about the club, you know that. I was lying on my sofa watching a game. It was five to nine and I’ll never forget this, it was burned on my brain and my phone started jumping a little bit.
“I got an email from Stewart (Robertson) saying: ‘Please check your email’. It’s a minute to nine on a Friday night, the night before a game. So I’m going to watch a bit of the news, do a bit of paperwork and go to bed.
“I look over and purely by chance I’m on Sky Sports and on the yellow ticker tape I see ‘Mark Warburton resigns from Rangers’. You know the double take? My phone’s now jumping, I phone Davie Weir and say, ‘I think I’ve just been sacked’ and Davie Weir says, ‘So have I.’ I said, ‘What do you mean?’ Then I look up and it says David Weir has resigned from Rangers.”
“So I try to phone the powers that be and no one picks your calls up. My agent called up to ask what was going on and I had no idea. ‘Apparently, I’ve resigned’ and he has no idea what I’m talking about. So it a nutshell, absolutely not. I was sacked from Rangers. We would never, ever walk away from a club like Rangers. Ever. So that was the frustration, that people suggested we had resigned. Nonsense. Absolute nonsense. It was handled absolutely appallingly at the time. You would never walk away from a club like Rangers and we had to deal with it.”
Mark Warburton tells me what REALLY happened with his departure from Rangers 👇
Link to the full interview 🎙️ – https://t.co/GH3bvVHWKY pic.twitter.com/ENlnvOZjlr
— Scott Bradley (@ScottBradleyX) November 14, 2023
There is no question that Warburton was hard done by from the board, especially in the transfer market. He wasn’t backed properly and was up against a Celtic team that went on to achieve a domestic treble and go invincible in the league.
Out of all the Rangers managers that have been at the club in the last nine years, it’s a fair argument to say that Warburton was dealt with the most difficult hand as he had to work with the club’s smallest budget since returning to the Premiership. He had to effectively rely on free agents to try compete with Celtic, who had spent close to £10 million.
If Warburton was given investment in the market, things possibly could have been different. He had a clear style of play, the football was great to watch, there was a structure, he knew how to develop young talent – Barrie McKay being the perfect example.
The winger’s career at Ibrox looked dead buried until Warburton arrived. He brought the best out of him. McKay scored that iconic screamer in the semi-final against Celtic – a goal that Gers fans still speak about to this day.
Closing thoughts on Warburton and his legacy at Rangers
Over the past year, I’ve had the pleasure to interview Mark a few times. I can say that he is without doubt one of the nicest people I’ve spoken to from the game. He is a class act, who means what he says, is highly intelligent and is one of the most underrated coaches in football.
I was gutted when he was sacked by Rangers. I believed he needed more time as we always knew the first season back in the top-flight was going to be a difficult one. Looking back at his time as manager, he delivered on what was asked of him and that was to get Rangers out of the Championship, which he done in style.
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The win against Celtic will forever live long in the memory and was without doubt one of my favourite Old Firm games that I’ve attended. Warburton always conducted himself with class, dignity and respect – he fitted the description of what a Rangers manager is meant to be.
The 62-year-old’s last gig in the game was with West Ham as a first-team coach where he helped the club win the Europa Conference League in 2023. I, and many other Rangers fans will remember the Warburton era very fondly, as he done the best he could with the little resources he had to work with during his two years in Glasgow. It’s only a matter of time before he’s back in the dugout and I can’t wait to see that happen as he is a very good manager and most importantly, a very good human being.
By: Scott Bradley / @ScottBradleyX
Featured Image: @GabFoligno / Rob Newell – CameraSport