Where is Philippe Senderos?

32
Where is Philippe Senderos?

Mark Warburton does not have his troubles to seek right now. Very little positivity is coming out of Ibrox right now, with Rangers rightly placed in seventh in the league having had a frankly woeful start to life back in the Premiership, below the expectations of a great number of the fanbase who hoped their side would be fighting at least in the top four.

However, to add to the string of subplots going on in Govan at the moment is the curious situation with Philipe Senderos, a 50+ Swiss cap who arrived in Glasgow’s South Side to train and win a deal all those many weeks ago, when Rangers were in dire need of an experienced and high quality head at the back.

Indeed, with experience of Highbury (as it was then) then the Emirates, before adding the San Siro and the Mestalla to his collection, it is fair to say Rangers were pretty sure they had acquired a fairly marquee signature in the form of the former Villa stopper, despite the bizarre Joleon Lescott saga getting in the way.

Indeed, the 6ft colossus strolled through his debut at Windsor Park then was not a huge shock to be included for the Old Firm clash at Parkhead.

And despite playing fairly well alongside the disastrous Rob Kiernan, two admittedly idiotic yellow cards saw him sent off in that match and since then the 31-year old has been completely frozen out of first team affairs, finding himself permanently benched.

No one is condoning his poor conduct in Glasgow’s East End, and he was rightly castigated by many for it. But with Rangers’ comical defending costing the first goal at Pittodrie, one really has to wonder two major things:

1: Why has Senderos been as good as frozen out already? Surely it cannot be due to his indiscretions at Celtic Park?

2: How can any manager justify signing a player of his supposed quality at the fairly handsome wage he will surely be on only to reject him to the bench?

Danny Wilson has by no means disgraced himself this season, even if he wildly misjudged the bounce at Aberdeen to expose Hill totally, and Hill himself has actually been half decent in the past two games, while Kiernan has been completely absent from first team affairs.

But sitting on the bench we have a potentially excellent defender who is more than good enough for this level and who did absolutely everything by the book in proving himself worthy of a contract while his prospective manager was flirting with a firebomb in the shape of Lescott, who is equally being well paid, and he wastes away.

It is a bizarre state of affairs, and it does further question the signing policy and Warburton’s judgement. Right now, Rangers have potentially £30-40,000 worth of wages sitting either on the bench or banned entirely, with Barton’s own salary reputed to be worth around £1M a year (roughly £20K a week) and to call that irresponsible is putting it mildly.

Niko Kranjcar too, who has not been a resounding hit and is a permanent sub, was a large investment that is not exactly paying off, while Jordan Rossiter, impressive though he has admittedly been on the pitch, sits out medium term injured for the umpteenth time in his young career, questioning the decision to sign him for what is likely to be a decent wage too.

Every club has its injuries, its bad signings, its mistakes; but only TWO of Rangers’ summer signings started against Aberdeen on Sunday (Garner and Hill) and only one further came on as a sub (Kranjcar, to little effect). And it is all costing Rangers significant money which is not looking like wise overheads at present.

Whatever the cause, for only three of 12 new signatures to play a role in such a critical match has to be a question for Mark Warburton and Frank McParland.

Even Josh Windass has had career-long injury troubles, and Rangers knew Matt Crooks was a long-term absentee from earlier this year; added to the Senderos oddity, the Barton banning and various other quibbles, what exactly is going on behind the scenes these days at Ibrox?

Only Warburton knows.

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32 COMMENTS

  1. im 100 percent behind my club but we need to get there act together very fast, we are still in rebuild but get the finger out lads,, WATP.

  2. But we will beat the bottom league side akin to the midweek win and all will be ok, back on track blah blah..!!1 The foundation in the team like the boardroom stinks.

  3. That's the big problem can't get a consistent starting 11 on pitch because of bans,suspensions injuries ,players getting played by name n not merit or favouritism warbs needs to have a gd think to himself wat personnel deserve to start on a Saturday n he must go with 2 strikers we must start scoring more goals. McKay keeps playing n there's no supply to the strikers coming from him, tav can't defend but can attack so he must b pushed up n hodson must cum in to team every time I've seen him play he's been solid n I wud like to see gilks getting a good run to see how many goals he concedes cos I might not Jst b defence to blame cud b down to communication with bck 4,positioning slow reactions etc he needs to sort out how many goals we concede asap.

  4. Stop The rot!! Start turning performances into positive results.
    Stop the Rot!! Stop telling the players about opposition fans.
    Stop the Rot!! Tell the players to make positive runs direct at defences!!
    Stop the Rot!!Get the full backs to face the play instead of last ditch tackles running back into defence.
    Stop the Rot!!Start shooting practice sessions.
    Stop the rot!! Start bouncing ball in defence sessions.
    Stop the Rot !!aaahh

  5. Wasn't Senderos suspended following his second yellow? And when he was on the bench, it was clearly down to a CB pairing that was working in Hill and Wilson. Not surprised.

    • The comment here spot on senderos will get his chance. This piece written here is yet again fans trying there hardest to find as much negativity as possible. Its time you all took a reality check

    • Ur spot on. This season is about consolidation & hopefully over next few windows the board will release money to buy the players needed.

  6. Don't understand why we don't just play 2 up front. Holt and Halliday in the middle, Mackay and Forrester/O'Halloran on the wings and then Waghorn/Garner or Miller/Windass up in the hole. Garner is going to struggle unless he gets crosses and playing the almost entirely left-sided Waghorn on the right wing means no crosses. As for defence, Wilson and Senderos/Crooks for me, Wallace LB and Hodson or Tav RB. Wouldn't do any harm for Tav to get a rest, see what defending looks like from the sidelines. We have good players, just a pish system. If Warburton says to Wilson "you're my man", he'll take up the cause, because he has the talent, just needs to be told so.
    Oh for Souness in charge.

  7. Signing Joey bigmouth was a big,big mistake, Warburton by signing him has caused ructions in the dressing room, once you lose the dressing room your on a slippery slope. The recent results show that the team is under performing, the manager is having difficulties arresting the situation. Warburton will have to come up with something quickly or he will find himself the object of ridicule.

  8. At the end of the day Warburton was given the second highest wage budget to make signings and I think it went to his head and he bought players that if they were four years younger would have been great signings however they are well off the pace. This is down to Warburton alone. The defence was terrible last year and we lost a Cup Final where every bear could see the defence needed strengthening but what does he do but bring in a 37 year old defender plus at the last moment added Senderos who could not get a club elsewhere. He also brought in two injury prone youngsters and spend over a million pounds to buy a striker who his style of play dictates he will get no service in the box. Added to total inflexibility in terms of his tactics and favouritism shown to certain players all adds up to a manager who is out of his depth in the same way as Ally did not have a clue how to manage a big club.

    • How you can compare warburton and what players and football we were watching under mcCoist is total mince.Some unbelieveable stupid comments coming from gers fans who all seem to be jumping the gun instead of gettin behind the manager and players. Wasnt that long ago almost everyone of you thought warburton was the best thing to happen to us in a long time

  9. Season tickets have once again been bought on empty promises, where's King and the £30 million???
    It's always the fans who have to spend their hard earned cash, I can see us going out of business again, this board promised honesty and transparency on all levels, where is it??

  10. Who signed Garner? Who scouted him? His record down south was well known in terms of his abilities.He was top of the league in terms of everything but goalscoring.Oscar material but not likely to be winning the Golden Boot anytime soon. Another waste of money.

  11. Rangers have made ‘significant progress' in recent games, says Mark Warburton

    skysports.com/football/news/11788/10595620/rangers-have-made-8216significant-progress-in-recent-games-says-mark-warburton

    Not progress as I know it ….and I have been following my club for half a centuary….if this is progress we are fcuked

    GSTQ

  12. Rossiter windass & crooks are injured. Barton caused his own omission kranjcar has featured hodson was bought as cover hill the same. Gilks has played so thats 8 players of the 12 & dodoo is coming back from injury. Lets debate the real problem & thats Warburtons decision not to change tactics. Senderos was a last minute signin because he was last option

  13. Sack him now! We have to stop them winning nine in a row, so there is no time to waste. Sick of hearing the numptys excuses for woeful defending and dropping points almost every game. We have the second highest wage bill in the country and we will be lucky to finish in the top five if this pish defending continues. We have a squad of players who should be capable of putting in a credible challenge for the title but the system is a disaster. 4-3-3 is too predictable and isn't playing to the players strengths. I f we sack him now we can still finish in the top 2 and hopefully win at least one cup competition. We will win nothing with this out of his depth numpty. My choice would be Walter Smith to steady the ship until the end of the season, and then we can make a full time appointment. Please King if your reading this, sack him and don't delay. Be ruthless, sack him now!

    • Sack him now, get a grip of yourself ur the numpty! Simple schoolboy defending with balls over the top, if the defence keep switched on it doesnt happen so thats down to players no warburton, plus only 3 points of 2nd place. Aw this negativity is unreal, maybe time for some fans to take a step back and remember where we were a few year back

  14. Everyone thought Barton was a good player turned out he was just a mouthpiece who promised a lot and produced nothing but rubbish and embarrassment for the club. He should be sent to a quiet corner if the training base and left to rot.
    The rest of the team will come good, all they need is for the fans to be patient and stay behind the team and the manager.

  15. Wasn't it Frank McParland , the greatest football talent spotter in the history of the universe , who recommended all these players to Warburton ? In that case , they'd be as well to give the job back to John Brown . At least his players would kick some arse .

  16. Getting annoyed with this so-called fans site. I understand they are trying to create discussion and hold the club to account but my God this article is depressing and seems to be a trend in over-sensationalised negative stories.

    It doesn't help the club to encourage such negativity. I appreciate asking questions about why Senderos isn't playing but why bring all the other new signings into it. Rossiter Windass and Crooks are now bad signings just because they are unfortunate enough to be injured??? Give me a break.

    Lets get behind the team – they don't NEED our support when they are winning, they certainly need it when they are struggling so lets try be positive and remember where we've come from last few seasons…the journey starts this season.

    • Sign up a mouthpiece bad boy who has lived up to expectation and embarrassed the club, a 37 year old who played a part in maybe 15 games last season, 2 kids with an serious injury past and a couple of ex international freebies who are just not interested in working hard was always going to be a gamble that clearly has not paid off. Too many think they are better than the SPFL when IMO they have underestimated the strengths.

      Questions should be raised. Saying anything else is disrespecting the fans opinions. Negativity has some basis over the past 5 months or more, not just 7 games.

      The manager will not be judged in May as he hopes, that will come much sooner as the crowds dwindle and fans lose interest. This is fact unless he can pull a rabbit out that magic hat and not just a manager's phrasebook or football tactics for dummies.

      Get us into the LC final and a chance at silverware this year will give us a boost and build on humping the jags at the weekend, simples.

  17. Just what is going on behind the scenes as a setup that worked so well last season is so shaky and that's being kind ! The jump up to the Premier League shouldn't be the mountain it's proving to be so far and the summer signings highly questionable.
    The night and day situation in only a matter of months raises so many questions which need answering fast, very fast.

  18. Senderos…….where is Rossiter, what exactly is the problem.

    We have signed him in a 4 year contract on decent money……has his Liverpool problems resurfaced?

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