Mark Warburton has backed off from correcting any of the stinging criticisms that Joey Barton made of his former Sevco boss.
The current Fleetwood boss made a number of damaging claims about the former city trader- claiming that he was shaking like a dog sh****ng itself as he prepared in the away dressing room ahead of playing Celtic on September 10.
Brendan Rodgers’ side hammered Warbo’s lot 5-1, Barton never played another match for the Ibrox side with the manager resigning five months later.
Warbo turned to TalkSPORT to defend himself but other than go on about dignity and respect offered nothing to contradict Barton’s version.
Covering his interview the Daily Record reports:
Firstly it’s disappointing, I think, when any manager makes derogatory and disrespectful comments to a fellow manager. So I’m not going to lower myself and get drawn into any small boy’s spat, far from it.
Suffice to say that such comments, there’s no truth to them, there’s no substance to them.
Barton claimed that the team shape was worked on at training on Thursday but later that night Andy Halliday was informed by text that he was dropped because news of the team had leaked out.
Niko Kranjcar and Josh Windass were brought into the team with Barton knowing that the match was lost as he stepped off the coach of dignity at the top of The Celtic Way.
Warbo added:
Big game for everyone concerned, a time of anticipation. So of course I remember it very differently to him.
As I say, I’m not going to get involved in these child-like spats, far from it, but it’s important to know that there a number of players that are mentioned in his article are top characters, great players, and I’m sure they have a very, very different story.
It’s a person making disrespectful and derogatory comments, it’s totally uncalled for. And especially manager-to-manager now. So I think the best thing to do is to leave the speech to the players.
People like Andy Halliday are Rangers through-and-through, outstanding characters on and off the field. I’ve got huge respect for Andy as a person, so I’m sure if someone of his character reads such comments he’ll be deeply disappointed and angry as well.
But there’s no point losing your dignity and getting involved in this ugly type of spat, it’s just about making sure people understand the true story, hopefully, and they know what managing Rangers means to someone like myself, what a privilege it was to manage a club of such distinction.
I think maintaining dignity and respect in our game, especially at a time like this, is very important. I know how I want to conduct myself.
[ad_pod id=”hoopla”]
After launching #goingfor55 Warbo lost to the Glasgow derby at Celtic Park, Hampden and Ibrox before discovering that he had resigned.
CLICK HERE for Barton- Warbo was shaking like a dog before facing Celtic.
