Mark Warburton, the Rangers manager, says his team will “smash” Celtic’s bid for ten successive Scottish Premiership titles, although he refused to identify their target directly, by bringing their run to an abrupt end next season.
Celtic are on the brink of a fifth straight title — they would make sure by avoiding defeat by Aberdeen at Celtic Park tomorrow — but, when it was put to him that Rangers supporters are desperate for them to be denied a record of ten-in-a-row, the PFA Scotland Manager of the Year indicated he is determined to mount a real challenge for next year’s competition.
“We don’t look at that [ending Celtic’s title-winning run]; we look to be the best we can be next season. If we do that, and we do it well, then that other thing [ten in a row] won’t happen; that is a simple fact
Preventing them from going one better than the nine-in-a-row set by Jock Stein’s Celtic side between 1966-74 and equalled by Rangers, under Graeme Souness and Walter Smith, from 1989-97, is, he acknowledged “another strand of the expectation” placed upon him as Rangers manager.
He continued: “We don’t look at that [ending Celtic’s title-winning run]; we look to be the best we can be next season. If we do that, and we do it well, then that other thing [ten in a row] won’t happen; that is a simple fact. If we get it wrong and we aren’t good enough then that thing, I say very respectfully, can happen.
“I am not ignoring that fact because we know we have to be the best we can be because there will be some tough challenges from Celtic, Aberdeen, Hearts, Motherwell and St Johnstone. We know that but we also know we have a nucleus of a really good squad. If we can add the four or five I think we need then I think we will do well.”
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The Englishman revealed that, when he met his new charges for the first time at their Auchenhowie training complex last summer, he informed them that merely securing automatic promotion would not be enough; he wanted them to crush the opposition. “We spoke to them about smashing the Championship,” he said. “We didn’t want to talk about just winning it by a point; we wanted to smash it. That was up on the first flipchart: ‘smash the Championship’ and targets two and three will remain private. We kept that first target quiet, too, until the job was done.”
Warburton did not disagree when it was suggested that his pre-season demands will be similar this year. “You all know the expectation,” he said. “Davie Weir always says second is last. There is no point in going into a league and saying you are happy with a certain target. If you set a target, it is restrictive and limiting.
“Our aim is to do as well as we can in the league, not ignoring the fact that we will be up against some top teams, top managers and battle-hardened players with European experience. However, we aren’t bad ourselves.”