I say this again; towards the end of last season I made a confident prediction about Mark Warburton. That he would be, by Christmas, where Ronny Deila was at the same time last year; mired in crisis, about one bad result shy of the sack.
Ludicrous stuff was written about Ronny in his time at Celtic. I regard the Scottish Cup Semi-Final defeat against Sevco the last of an unacceptable series of results and displays which were only ever going to end one way. It wasn’t that Ronny failed – he won two titles, that is success in anyone’s book – but that he didn’t deliver on the promise he showed initially and things weren’t getting any better. We were going backwards, thinking small, and there was no spark in either the team or in the stands.
Reasons for optimism were in short supply.
But I would have taken Ronny over Warburton any day of the week.
I never got the whole Magic Hat cobblers; it was clear this was a media construct that was setting everyone involved up for one almighty fall. The guy was never that good. Hibs self-detonated or they’d have run his team all the way to the finish line. They improved enough before the season ended to utterly dominate in the Scottish Cup Final. Even Warburton’s much heralded “victory” over us in the same competition wasn’t impressive; on another day we’d have won that game.
I have never been able to fully wrap my brain around the euphoria that surrounded that day. They defeated us on penalties despite having less possession and less shots on goal. We created more, and better, chances. Our performance was lacking in many ways, but I have never accepted the ridiculous narrative that we were “outplayed.”
Ronny had the better tactical approach that day, which isn’t to say that it was a good approach or the right one for Celtic. It was too defensive, too cautious, allowed them more time on the ball than it should have. If they were good that day we made them look that way by backing off every time they had possession.
Look at how we dominated on Sunday by doing completely the opposite. In the semi we created opportunities in spite of it. Watch how Warburton responded, with like for like changes, those of a guy with no idea how to spot an opening and exploit it. Ronny’s changes were the same; Brendan could have owned the two of them together.
I would have chosen Ronny over Warburton because overall he was the better boss, with the greater accomplishments, with the better ideas. His decisions in the transfer market showed second tier ambition in comparison to Brendan’s, but his decision to build his team around a core group of young Scottish players – which I talked about yesterday – were amongst his best. We’ll be reaping the benefits of Stuart Armstrong, Ryan Christie, Leigh Griffiths and Kieran Tierney for years to come. That’s no small thing.
Ronny arrived here with the CV of a winner and he left with one.
Warburton arrived with nothing but a reputation, but he was the one the media chose to laud and to love, whereas Ronny had to fight for every bit of respect he got, and there wasn’t a whole lot of it out there for him, even at the very end. Warburton clearly had better PR, but I never believed there was much more to him except for it, and it’s no surprise to see him fill the team with dreck, to demonstrate tactical inflexibility and to behave with a misplaced arrogance that seems to take hold of everyone who walks through the Ibrox gates.
I did a comparison between these two guys six months ago.
As usual, the media is late to the party and drawing all the wrong conclusions from it.
The league form of both clubs was broadly comparable last season, but you have to consider that Ronny was going up against top flight teams and managers whilst Warburton – with the second biggest wage bill in the country – was going up against teams with virtually no resources at all, many of whose players were on part-time contracts.
Warburton’s accomplishments – winning the second tier title and the third tier cup competition – were never presented in context. Instead the media chose to focus on trying to devalue what Ronny did because, perversely, there was no Sevco in the league. They conveniently ignored that there was no Aberdeen, Hearts, Inverness, Motherwell, St Johnstone, Kilmarnock, Dundee or – haha – Celtic in theirs. It was Ronny who got no recognition.
Now, at last, the media is making the comparison, but even now they don’t do it with respect. They don’t present it as they should.
Ronny is a two-time top flight title winner in this country, and he has another in his native Norway.
He’s won top domestic trophies in both countries.
He finished his time here with a 63% win ratio; not bad at all.
It is appalling that the media is only now using the comparison to ridicule Warburton as it all starts to slip away from him. The football under Ronny was uninspiring and we were heading backwards, but it got results most weeks. It delivered two SPL crowns. There’s an increasingly big question mark over Warburton’s ability to get second spot; I never thought it likely, but the media hyped the idea of them “challenging Celtic” to the point where this was inevitable.
Warburton is a busted flush, and it’s amusing the way the media is starting to come around to that idea, at last. But it was all based on hype to begin with, and when you structure your whole world view on that it’s always going to end badly.
Ronny Deila will be a top boss. Mark Warburton doesn’t have the luxury of time the way he has, and there are elements of his character and how it’s evolved during his tenure at Ibrox that will not make him a first-pick for many jobs elsewhere. Today he’s linked with Wigan; that’s about his level, and I would be amazed – astounded – if even they were considering him based on the way his team is playing this season. I wonder if his career will ever recover.
The careers of some of the hacks who poured honey in his ear probably ought to end with his.
Their own credibility is equally shot.
I won’t be holding my breath though.
They will definitely outlast him.