Alan Brazil: Rangers pressed the panic button… Mark Warburton should still be in charge

JUST when you thought Rangers’ season couldn’t get any more chaotic, along comes 9pm on Friday night and a statement from the club.

Mark Warburton and his management team had resigned en masse.

The shock from that had just sunk in when it emerged Warburton was denying that was the case.

It did no-one any favours.

In the cold light of this morning, and with the ins and outs of the whole mess still being debated, I am sure of one thing.

Mark Warburton should not have been treated the way he has been.

He should still be the Gers’ gaffer.

Rangers fans, at least the vast majority of them, won’t like that opinion, but I stand by it.

Whatever the jiggery-pokery behind the scenes on both sides – and nobody knows the full story there – the Ibrox club is the loser.

I said at the start of the season that Rangers had no chance of winning the title this year.

I also said they were by no means guaranteed second place.

I believed Warburton’s side faced a battle with Aberdeen and Hearts for Scottish football’s best-of-the-rest spot behind Celtic.

That’s exactly what has come to pass.

And after the job he did getting Rangers promoted, Mark did not deserve to find himself out of a job this way.

Yes, there were failings with his side. He can’t hide from that.

Some of his signings didn’t work out at all, while others look like they’re struggling.

Mark is an honest guy, a straight-up character, so he would surely admit to his mistakes himself.

But that’s what happens when a club the size of Rangers finds itself, through budgetary constraints, having to recruit from the lower reaches of English football.

Players often can’t handle the demands.After all, being at a big club isn’t just about being a good player.

It’s also about having bottle.

For me, that’s something too many of the Gers’ current mob don’t have enough of.

There is ability there. There’s no doubt about that. But there’s more to being a footballer than playing football, especially at a club like Rangers.

That’s something I discovered for myself when I joined Manchester United.

The players who were successful there were a different breed.

They carried themselves a certain way. Not necessarily arrogant, just full of belief.

They were born winners, guys who believed they were there on merit, and who weren’t fazed by anything.

I had that when I arrived at Old Trafford, but as my back problems got worse, my confidence was dented. Once that starts to happen, you don’t stand a chance.

When I look at Rangers today, I see too many players who look shattered by the experience of being there.

But I don’t accept that Mark Warburton is to blame for that.

He has played the hand he has been dealt. As far as I am concerned, he has played it well.

However, what’s done is done. Rangers won’t waste time. They will move on quickly.

But whatever they do, they’ll have to get it right.