FIVE consecutive wins, 19 goals scored and four conceded. It’s an impressive start to the Mark Warburton era at Rangers, yet both the new manager and his players feel it could be more emphatic still. They reckon they should have scored more, taken a higher percentage of the chances they have created.
It is also reminiscent, thus far, of the relentless start Hearts produced a year ago. Remarkably, that stretched to January, with 17 wins and three draws from their first 20 league games burning off Hibs and Rangers in the process.
The highlight of that sequence was a pivotal win over Ally McCoist’s Rangers in Edinburgh in November, which put Hearts nine points clear. Jason Holt played and scored a fine goal for Hearts that day, but along with Danny Wilson has since swapped Tynecastle for Ibrox. He says Rangers are capable of a similar charge of consistency to the Championship title.
“Definitely. With the ability in the squad, I don’t see why not. There’s the similar hard-working hours on the training field that paid off for Hearts. It’s the same level of intensity here, which is good for the players, that’s what you want. If we’re willing to put that effort in, then the rewards come. So far, it’s worked well.”
The battery of matches — Rangers are currently in the middle of five fixtures over a fortnight — has also helped bring Warburton’s team up to speed and is still not as demanding in terms of distances as the “brutal” Saturday-Tuesday schedule he faced with Brentford in the English Championship. “We said right from the very first day or week of pre-season training that they were understanding the drills really well. They asked the right questions, they got it. David [Weir] and I both remarked that the group was sharp in football terms and they have shown that in the games. There’s a lot more improvement to come, a lot more work to be done, but right now they have pleasantly surprised us, absolutely.”
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Holt has featured in all five matches so far, playing as an old-fashioned inside-forward almost in the 4-3-3 favoured by his manager. It is a role and attacking approach that seems perfectly suited to his delicate skills. “Sometimes to get that goal or a chance you need to take risks. You can see the chances we are creating, there are a lot of them. We’d like to score more and convert more. I’m sure if we keep creating, then the goals will come. Hopefully over the next few weeks we can do that. The only criticism so far from the players’ point of view is to try and score more from the chances created. We’ve not put as many away.”
Yet hitting Hibs for six on their first competitive outing, at Easter Road in the Challenge Cup, wasn’t exactly wasteful and Rangers’ will hope to show similar ruthlessness today at Ibrox in the first league meeting between the sides. It comes after the summer-long Scott Allan transfer saga, before Celtic finally stepped in to sign the 23-year-old, and a sharp exchange last week between Warburton and Alan Stubbs, the Hibernian manager. Stubbs claimed Rangers’ budget made Warburton’s job “very easy”. “I’d suggest any manager without the facts keeps his mouth shut,” he responded.
It’s worth pointing out that Rangers also had the largest wage bill in the Championship last season, but that didn’t stop them finishing third. With his city background, Warburton hates to see poor investments and is determined not to make any on Rangers’ behalf.
“If you look around the football market, it’s littered with teams that have spent money badly,” he said. “It’s not the size of your budget, it’s how you use your available budget. Last year, I had one of the smaller budgets [at Brentford] and performed well. It’s about your homework, your research, your diligence to make sure you take the right characters to your football club. So, I’m not having that one. You can spend £50m on a player and get it completely wrong. You can spend £500,000 on a player and they get on great. We’ve used what money we have, I think, wisely. The players that have come in have made an immediate impression and they will be valuable balance sheet items for the club going forward. That’s how I see it.”
If they missed out on Allan, then Rangers are set to compensate by taking Gedion Zelalem on loan from Arsenal. The 18-year-old midfielder has played for Germany at several age groups but has since switched his international allegiance to the United States, where he emigrated to from Berlin with his father after his mother’s death in 2005.
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Warburton has wooed him with a tour of Rangers’ training ground and offering a playing style that should suit an Arsene Wenger protege. “He’s a talented player, with a good education. A very creative ball player, but he’s nowhere near the finished article. He will play for Arsenal’s first-team in my opinion. He’s very highly thought of by the Arsenal staff, but our job is to make sure we work with him to help his development over the coming season. If that can come about, then he will be a valuable addition to us.”
Already Warburton’s contacts at the Premier League’s academies have yielded Nathan Oduwa and Dominic Ball on loan from Spurs. Oduwa caused a fuss by adorning his debut in last week’s 5-1 win at Alloa with some showboating, to the chagrin of their players. If Warburton didn’t already appreciate the microscope that Rangers constantly find themselves under, then that little episode of controversy after a routine victory should do the trick.
The Rangers fans have warmed to him, carrying loaves of the bread with which he shares his surname to matches and also coming up with a song about him having a magic hat, as opposed to the tin one that McCoist could have done with in the latter days of his reign. “I received a hat through the post which was quite intriguing,” said Warburton, “so I’m aware of the song. The hat was interesting, but not one I would put on in front of the cameras.”