RANGERS manager Mark Warburton fears the early start to the new season has handicapped his side’s silverware prospects even before a ball is kicked.
The Light Blues boss has been busy rebuilding his squad ahead of the step up to the Premiership.
But he’s exasperated at having to deal with what he believes is an unnecessarily frantic opening schedule.
“People have spoken about the changes revitalising the League Cup. But, I honestly believe, the authorities have not spoken to football people about what’s best for football,” he said.
“We face four games in nine days: July 16, 19, 22, 25, with the hardest one, Motherwell in the League Cup, up first. Who could think that makes sense?
“People might point to our game against Charleston Battery in the US but it is a warm-up – just 45 minutes for two totally separate XIs.
“And then the next game is Motherwell! I just find it, for us, far from ideal. I’m being very polite saying that.
“If these were four games over 18, 19 days, whatever, then I would understand it. No problem at all. But with the intensity of these games?
“The League Cup is a huge tournament and it is part of the Treble and Rangers, with the club’s history and tradition, need to compete for every competition they enter.
“I’m sure I’m not the only one saying this. There must be many other managers because Motherwell manager Mark McGhee and the other guys have the same problem.
“I hope very much I won’t be alone. I know I won’t be because managers have to look after their own clubs. But what do we do?
“I can’t change it, I don’t have the power to change it.
“What do Rangers fans expect? If I put an Under-19 or Under-20 side into one of these games, watch the reaction from the media, the authorities and fans.”
If that’s an extreme example of the options open to him, however unlikely they are to come to pass, Warburton is genuinely concerned.
“How is it going to work?” he said.
“I’ve got players arriving on July 1, others won’t join us until July 9. Therefore they will have four days with us before we play our first game – against a Premiership opponent.
“How do I bed in the team, bed in a back four? I don’t know.
“I can’t play the same team on the 16th that I play on the 19th, the 22nd or the 24th. And then we play Burnley.”
Meanwhile, the Rangers boss is looking forward to the opportunities the club’s American training camp will allow him to integrate new faces such as Croatian star Nico Kranjcar.
“We’re going out to the States tomorrow with 25 players, four of whom could be keepers, and we’ll look at what we have,” he said.
“Charleston is a great town, on the shore and a place which will allow some good down time for the players when they are not training, which is important.
“When players go away they are training three times a day. Can you imagine getting up in the morning and you run up a mountain? And when you get back to your bunk bed, you are lying there knowing in two hours, you’re going to run up a mountain? Then you get up and you run up that mountain?
“It’s the down time that kills the players, so we felt if we could improve that it would be a big help.
“When I was in Florida with Brentford the guys lay by the pool then trained hard again.
“They went shopping and bought their cheap iPads. So instead of talking about training in three-and-half hours’ time and worrying about getting battered again, they were talking about their iPads.”
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