Mark Warburton admits Rangers players have been shocked by stick from fans but says..

[ian1964 10,457]

..You have to grow and learn from it

 

THE Rangers manager has been getting in the neck from his opposite number at Easter Road and from his own fans - but hopes his players have learned a lesson ahead of tomorrow's crunch match.

 

MARK WARBURTON may claim to be immune to managerial mind games – but the Ibrox boss hopes pelters from the public won’t be so easy for his players to shrug off.

 

For the first time this term, the Rangers gaffer and his squad are being scrutinised after allowing an eight-point lead at the summit to slip away.

 

Warburton has had to endure verbals from Hibs manager Alan Stubbs in the run-up to tomorrow’s top-of-the-table showdown at Ibrox.

 

However, he’s not the only one to get an earful after two of his players took stick in the street after last weekend’s 2-1 defeat away to Falkirk.

 

Still, the Englishman insists the verbal abuse will be good for his young stars in the long term as they bid to fend off a title challenge from Hibs.

 

He said: “I’ve been intrigued by what’s happened off the pitch. Previously, the boys have had a lot of positive comments. But how do they deal with the negativity of last week when they go out for a walk?

 

“A couple of guys got a bit of abuse from some fans. How do you deal with that?

 

“It’s not a one-way street, things can’t always be rosy for them. You grow and learn from it.

 

“I think they were shocked by it but that’s the nature of fans. I’m not sure what team they supported, I didn’t ask for the details.

 

“But fans are demanding and impatient – it’s the nature of the game.

 

“Players and staff are in a great job, so just deal with it. It’s good for the boys to get a bit of stick – it’s character building, isn’t it?

 

“It’s about dealing with a bit of adversity and if you’re stronger for it, great. They recognise the goldfish bowl of football in Glasgow. Now they have to respond to it.”

 

Warburton is under pressure to take Rangers back to the top flight in his first year in charge.

 

Despite Stubbs’ attempts to get under his counterpart’s skin, the Ibrox boss insists he won’t buckle nor change his side’s style of play.

 

He said: “Football is not the only business to have pressure.

 

“What irks me is when people talk about football as this unique world that rivals with nothing else.

 

“Of course that’s not the case. In my previous world, I had lots of pressure. If you’re a bricklayer doing up a wall, that’s pressure. It’s the same in every industry.

 

“The boys here go to work in front of 50,000 fans and of course that’s a difference.

 

“People talk about a Plan B for us. But Plan B is doing Plan A better. We try to do what we do well. Improve your touch, quality of pass, decision making – that will make you better.

 

“My principles are not obstinate. What’s obstinate is being bottom of the league and saying what you’re doing is right. We’re a young squad and we’re top of the league. We’re evolving as a team.

 

“We’re having some success but it won’t be done overnight. You learn from your mistakes.

 

“I’m not comparing us to Barcelona or Bayern Munich but those teams just do what we do better.

 

“The teams who buy players on £200k a week do what ourselves and Hibs do better. Their players are quicker, stronger, sharper with their pass. That’s why they’re on £200k a week. I hear supporters saying, get us a centre-forward: he’s 6ft 4, technically outstanding and rapid. Yeah, OK. Listen, our players have been first class and we’ll be fine.

 

“Teams are now looking at how they are going to play against Rangers and that’s a compliment to the start we had. They opened up against us and we showed good quality. Now, we have to find different solutions to different problems.

 

“There’s no lack of focus or taking it easy.”

 

Before Warburton arrived in June, the biggest football pressure he was under was to get Brentford into the Championship play-offs.

 

Even though he’d already announced he and his No.2 Davie Weir were off, the Bees came within 90 minutes of a £100 million play-off shoot-out at Wembley.

 

Warburton said: “We were favourites to be relegated at the start of the season and everyone said we had to just survive. But how do you say to a group of testosterone-packed athletes ‘just do enough’? That doesn’t work.

 

“When we made our decision, we said to the players not to let all their good work leak away. And they were magnificent to a man.”

 

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/mark-warburton-admits-rangers-players-7072949

[der Berliner 3,290]

What would papers and journos do when not whipping up stories like the above and start a bit of hysteria, to then dwell on exactly what they whipped up and write about it? Then again, we've seen it all before, it is utterly predictable, lame, and should not drive people into a frenzy. We are - more or less - realistic enough to know that this is far from a finished team or a finished season. It is work in progress, and the progress is not going to be reversed. It just is not always going to be easy.

 

I know that should the "unthinkable" happen and we'll lose tomorrow, there will be a meltdown of apocalyptic proportions in some quarters and with some boarders. We've seen similar before, not least after Nerby losses. Hardly ever have these games determined where the title went in May. We should keep that in mind, no matter how the result goes tomorrow.

[SteveC 150]

I thought these were the only telling lines:

"“I think they were shocked by it but that’s the nature of fans. I’m not sure what team they supported, I didn’t ask for the details."