Stressed out Mark Warburton has blamed ‘certain papers’ for the air of negativity surrounding Ibrox.
During the summer, egged on by comments from Joey Barton, the punters bought into the hype surrounding #goingfor55 to help reinforce the feeling that the tribute act was indeed the real deal.
Warbo was happy to go along with the hype but now finds himself in the firing line of trailing Celtic by nine points after being outfought and outplayed by Brendan Rodgers twice in six weeks.
A 1-1 home draw with St Johnstone and a dose of reality was too much for some fans who booed their team off the park on Wednesday night.
Dealing with that sort of reaction and the expectations of fans brought up on success that their old club couldn’t afford was never covered in the coaching courses that Warbo used to get into management.
Rather than looking at the failings of his expensively put together squad he has taken the easy option out by turning on the media.
Asked if the start to the season had been good enough the former city trader said: “Do you want an honest answer? The pressure comes from certain papers. If you read certain papers then you think the pressure comes from the board because we have won four out of 10.
“Had we won against St Johnstone instead of drawn, where would be in relation to Hearts and Aberdeen?
“The point is this, we are 10 games in, very early into the season, still players gelling in. And from this ‘shocking’ start … one reporter said to me last night that it would be even deeper into the despair – yet if we’d won we would have been level second, having had this ‘shocking’ start.”
Getting into his stride Warbo added: “There have been some rogue comments in papers, or radio phone-ins, whatever it may be – but if the board come and speak to me that is a different proposition.
“Right now, we are right in the mix, if we win our next two games and are second going into the international break, is that bad for a team which has just come up? Is it bad if we are sitting second after a ‘shocking’ start. I am not so sure.”
Anything less than a win tomorrow against Kilmarnock and Warbo will discover that it’s more than just ‘certain papers’ that are unhappy with a title challenge over before Halloween.
