Mark Warburton delivered some truth to the hack-pack and the fans of the Ibrox club today. It wasn’t what anyone wanted to hear, but someone inside Ibrox has clearly decided to hand down a dose of reality to the fans. Not that the media is reporting it that way.
This has been an interesting week for those of us who keep an eye on what that lot are doing. Phil has been busily talking to accountants and getting them to go over the numbers which Sevco sneaked out to the world last Friday, and which remain unscrutinised by the media even now. The findings Phil got back are pretty atrocious; this is a club teetering on the brink, surviving on soft loans from its own directors, a club trading whilst insolvent.
It is difficult to over-state how bad this is or how big a hole they are in, but whilst fooling the media is relatively simple the club is saddled with a manager who doesn’t only see the writing on the wall but who can read those accounts for himself and knows what they add up to.
They add up to trouble. For him. For the fans. For King and his board. The South African tax cheat can sit over there and slap some PR ooze onto the spreadsheets but Warburton knows that the numbers don’t add up.
In those accounts, King threatens to spend whatever it takes. He specifically states that “The club cannot stand still or lose ground and the board will continue to back the manager and his team.” Which the media interpreted as a pledge to spend, with a tougher time than any of these arrogant gits predicted already providing testimony to the need for it.
The Bampots have said, repeatedly, that anyone waiting on King providing a “war chest” will be waiting one awful long time. Nothing’s going to come of that. Warburton once believed him when he came out with his crap. Does he still? Unless it’s King himself who’s ordering the manager to start lowering expectations – you wouldn’t put it past him; one wag last year described the South African as the only person in Scottish football who can talk out of both sides of his mouth and not tell the truth from either – or the manager himself has realised such promises aren’t worth a Joey Barton pledge of good behaviour.
Either way, at last the truth, or something like it.
Forget any spending to shore up the league position come January; they don’t have the funds. Whilst Warburton hasn’t come out and said so he’s made it pretty clear by telling the press he hopes – mark that word down for future reference; the Daily Record is already ignoring it and salivating over what sounded to them like a guarantee – to bring in one player from the EPL, on loan. If they get one at all, my guess is that it won’t be Yaya Toure.
Has everyone involved forgotten some salient details here or what? Because Sevco had a number of young players on loan last season, and their clubs were less than impressed by their development. Not a single English top flight club was willing to loan them someone in the last window, and they tried hard.
Because the word’s gone out. They have a bloated squad where their own players can’t even get games. Why in God’s name would you send a quality youngster there to sit on the bench, and stagnate? You wouldn’t, of course.
The idea of bringing in young players from top sides there has merit, of course. It undeniably does. We have one of them on our books right now, young Patrick Roberts, and there was Denayer before him, players of real technical ability with a work ethic to match.
But those players are few and far between, and we had a fantastic relationship – and still do – with Manchester City to fall back on. Whilst The Record suggests that Warburton has his own good relationships down south there’s scant evidence of them bearing fruit thus far; none of the youngsters they had on loan last year was up to much. Certainly, it’s hard to imagine many of them lasting the pace in the SPL.
The point isn’t that they might not get a player; I think they can probably find some kid we’ve never heard of. This is the first serious admission that Sevco are Skinto. This is the first dose of reality for a support that still labours under the crazy belief that there’s money under the mattress somewhere.
It also asks a major question about Warburton.
There are managers who can get the best out of people who are already at a club. Warburton has perhaps impacted on a handful. He’s signed 20 odd players in just over 18 months … and his only answer to the club’s poor form is to sign more. A guy like that, you can let him sign 100 players and nothing will actually get better with the team.
Brendan has worked a miracle with five signings, of whom only three are regulars in the team. In the process he’s helping turn Kieran into a first-rate player, made Armstrong better, revitalised Forrest, found something in Simunovic, turned Rogic around, inspired Scott Brown and has Mikael Lustig playing the best football he has in years.
He will spend in the window; but we’re preparing a squad for Europe next season. Warburton will try to sign players because in spite of having already secured two entire teams of them he still doesn’t have answers to basic questions about his side and doesn’t know any other way to fix the problems. That’s truly pathetic, and should be ringing alarm bells inside Ibrox.
January is going to be interesting.
I’d still bet on Warburton not even being there. If he is, he better get used to a paupers diet. That’s as good as it’s going to get. Whether the fans have been listening, and are willing to accept that, is another question entirely.