A Daily Record reporter has claimed that Mark Warburton and David Weir both cringed at the #GOINGFOR55 claim launched at the start of the 2016/17 season.
The former Brentford management team had just won the Petrofac Cup against Peterhead and steered the tribute act into the top flight, bankrolled by the millions of Dave King and the Three Bears.
Martyn Waghorn and James Tavernier had joined home grown heroes Andy Halliday and Jason Holt when Warbo decided to spend big.
Joey Garner dwarfed the money Celtic spent on Moussa Dembele. The lower league no-mark was joined by Nicky Kranjcar and Accrington starlets Josh Windass and Matt Crooks. The star signing however was former Strangeways inmate Joey Barton.
Warbo and Weir couldn’t restrain themselves at the prospect of Barton bossing Scottish football- Scott Brown in particular.
Barton lasted five matches in the SPFL, given the runaround by Celtic in an emphatic 5-1 win that trashed his reputation and also that of Warbo, a former city trader.
The summer of 2016 has now been airbrushed, the joy, anticipation and gloating after Celtic lost to Lincoln Red Imp on July 12 has been forgotten.
Recalling a meeting with Warbo and Weir David McCarthy notes in the Daily Record:
Warburton and Weir knew that winning the title in the first season was a non-starter.
And big Davie knew better than most – having lived it as a player – that in Glasgow you would be as well finishing last as finishing second behind your Old Firm rivals.
They told me they’d cringed at the Going for 55 banner, sanctioned by the club, that was unfurled before that first game of the season. They knew it was pumping up hopes and dreams even further when the reality was it would have taken something of a miracle to win the title that season.
They also knew the beating they’d handed out to Celtic that April had merely jabbed a complacent, sleeping giant awake. Celtic threw huge money at bringing in an elite manager in Rodgers and gave him a budget that dwarfed theirs.
In response, Rangers went for the likes of Niko Kranjcar and Philippe Senderos – players with great CVs but with their best years a distant memory. And they went for Joey Barton. How they lived to regret that.
In midweek Barton claimed that Warbo was shaking like a dog trying to do a s*** in the dressing room before getting hammered 5-1 by Celtic.
Since Warbo discovered that he has resigned Graeme Murty, Pedro Caixinha and Steven Gerrard have all failed to stop Celtic. Since the launch of #GOINGFOR55 only one team has won domestic honours in Scotland.
