Mark Warburton has claimed that he wanted to sign Moussa Dembele and is still going on about Barrie McKay’s near miss in his 5-1 humiliation!
The former city trader had his wafer thin reputation torn apart by the Celtic striker who scored five times in three matches against Warbo’s defenders.
After promising to deliver on the farcical ‘goingfor55’ campaign Warbo was sacked in February with Celtic 24 points ahead of Sevco and on route to an invincible treble.
One season in the top flight exposed Warbo as a coach with his signings such as Joey Barton, Nick Kranjcar, Jordan Rossiter and Joey Garner unable to live with the pressure.
Martyn Waghorn, Joe Dodoo and Garner were the strikers that the former city trader invested in but according to an interview in The Sun it was a youthful Fulham striker that he really wanted.
“I was aware of Dembele’s availability, if I could have done anything about it I would have,” Warbo claimed.
“Brendan Rodgers is a good friend, he’s done an outstanding job but some of the nonsense I’ve read about fees and anything else…
“Am I right in saying Tottenham bid £8million for Dembele and it was turned down?
“Do the fans honestly think that there’s £8m turned down, but that he’d cost only £400,000? Now, if the fee is right, what’s the basic wage?”
Having signed Barton and Kranjcar on free transfers Warbo will know how much you need to pay for a quality ‘free transfer’.
Both of those midfield aces were in his starting XI when he headed to Celtic Park last September for a match that finished Barton and was the beginning of the end for the Magic Hat.
Rather than admit to being handed a footballing lesson Warbo is still clutching at straws from his east end humiliation.
If you remember the game, it was 2-1 and Barrie McKay went so close with a chance just after half-time.
“Then they went 3-1 ahead and I had one substitution left. We were still in the game.
“But Rob Kiernan pulled his hamstring and had to come off. Then within another few minutes Philippe Senderos got a straight red card.
“So, I’ve lost two centre-halves, I’ve used my last sub, and I’ve got Joey Barton playing centre-half.
“It was about me being smashed 5-1. Yet it was 3-1 when I lose two centre-halves. If it’s a 3-1 defeat then, of course, it’s still tough to take but 5-1 sounds horrible.”
