Rangers fans remain in the dark following mysterious disappearance of manager Mark Warburton
Rangers fans seeking clarity about the abrupt departure of the club’s management team will not find it in the statement issued by Mark Warburton. Issued via the League Managers Association, the statement is essentially a reprise of Warburton’s previous insistence that he did not resign as manager on Friday, nor did his assistant, David Weir, or the club’s head of recruitment, Frank McParland.
The statement read: “Much has been said over the last few days relating to our departure from Rangers Football Club. At this stage, for legal reasons, it is inappropriate for us to comment in any great detail on our departure from the club.
“However, given that the club has seen fit to make detailed public statements, it is important that we should clarify certain matters and as such we would like to formally place on record, that at no stage did we resign from our positions at Rangers.
“It is a matter of surprise to us, and to the League Managers Association (LMA), which is advising all three of us, that despite its detailed public statements, the club has not answered key questions put to it by the LMA, in writing, requesting an explanation of why it suggested that we resigned from our positions.”
However, rather like Sherlock Holmes and the instance of the dog that did not bark, what is immediately striking is the absence of any reference to Rangers’ insistence that an agent acting for the trio – understood to be Dave Lockwood –asked for a meeting with the Ibrox managing director, Stewart Robertson, and that the meeting took place on Monday of last week. Lockwood was the representative who negotiated the management team’s initial contracts with Rangers and also Warburton’s improved deal last summer.
Nor is it disputed that the agent declared that the three wanted to quit and requested that Rangers should waive their right to compensation from their next employers. At that time the position of manager at Nottingham Forest was vacant but it was filled by Thursday last week and, whether coincidentally or not, it was at that point, according to Rangers, that the agent again approached the club, this time to report that his clients no longer wished to tender their resignations.
Telegraph Sport understands that the proposal put by Lockwood at that stage was that the management team should be paid monthly until the summer, at which point they could leave, with Rangers getting no compensation.
The implications of such conversations are clearly debatable in terms of employment law and will undoubtedly form the basis of legal claim and counterclaim between Rangers and the erstwhile management team, should the matter go to court. However, given that the club claims to have evidence that the three had been complicit in trying to move back to England for some time, the affair might not go the distance.
For those Rangers fans who had become disenchanted with what they construed as a lack of development, with only five points taken from a possible 15 in their five most recent league games, there will be scant consolation from the rest of Warburton’s statement, which read: “For all three of us, it was an absolute privilege to be given the opportunity to work at a club that is so rich in tradition and history.
“It was an honour to be given the responsibility of returning the club to the top tier of Scottish football and we are very proud to have played our part in successfully securing promotion back to the Scottish Premiership.
“For all three of us, it was an absolute privilege to be given the opportunity to work at a club that is so rich in tradition and history. It was an honour to be given the responsibility of returning the club to the top tier of Scottish football and we are very proud to have played our part in successfully securing promotion back to the Scottish Premiership.”
The League Managers Association declined to make any further comment when approached by Telegraph Sport. Meanwhile, the Telegraph understands that Rangers are very unlikely to appoint an interim manager this week and that Graeme Murty, the under-20 coach who oversaw the William Hill Scottish Cup fifth round victory over Morton at Ibrox will again be in charge when Rangers meet Dundee at Dens Park on Sunday.
