The Mark Warburton stuff has risen again, and the former manager still insists he’s innocent.
Back in 2017 when he supposedly resigned, every Rangers fan looked at his sly chats with Forest and found him guilty of lying.
We don’t know for sure if he really did talk to Forest without club permission, because he’s never confirmed or denied that one, but information suggests he did, and the only reason all this happened is because Forest were about to appoint him and his two buddies only for them to change their minds and appoint someone else instead.
Unfortunately there’s a level of understanding that a representative had already told Rangers he was going to Forest, so the club accepted their resignation.
Only for that to fall through…
Warburton claims to this day he’d never quit Rangers, not for anyone, but the evidence suggests he tried to quit for Forest.
He’s very canny with his language:
“I literally turned on Sky Sports and I saw this yellow headline. My phone started jumping. I’m thinking, what’s this? ‘Mark Warburton resigns as Rangers manager’. I phoned Davie Weir, ‘Davie, I think I’ve just been sacked. He said ‘so have I’ and I said, ‘why is that?’ And I looked at the television again and it said: ‘David Weir also resigns’. Then I get a text saying ‘please look at your email account, we accept your resignation’. I have no idea what you’re talking about. And that was it.”
What we believe has happened here is the three of them went south to discuss the Forest job, but it hadn’t been secured. But it looked a goer, and the only way it would take place would be if Forest didn’t have to pay Rangers compensation.
As such, an agent told Rangers they’d quit, without their necessarily confirming that, Rangers accepted, and then hey presto, we have the three of them resigned without any of the three actually doing so.
At no point in his claims does Warburton deny he spoke to Forest, nor does he directly deny any of the reasons which would see him leave Rangers.
All he does is act confused that he’s seen his resignation announced by SSN and Rangers before he actually formally quit.
Is it a nothing story? Probably. Is it the BBC trying to mug sling at Rangers? Probably. But till the day Bread Man actually gives the truth about what led to all of that – we’re only guessing.