Send Rangers fans home happy, says Mark Warburton

Rangers manager Mark Warburton oversees training ahead of tomorrows League Cup tie with Peterhead. Picture: SNS

BEFORE the Rangers players leave their dressing room at Ibrox tomorrow for Mark Warburton’s first competitive home game in charge of the club, they will see a new sign pinned to the wall.

It is hardly one of the most profound slogans ever coined but it neatly sums up Warburton’s determination to reconnect the long-disillusioned Rangers supporters with those who represent them on the pitch.

“There will be a sign saying ‘Send Them Home Happy’ on our wall,” revealed Warburton ahead of the League Cup first round tie against Peterhead.

“It’s about us recognising what we have to do to keep the people happy. If we do that, it shows we are taking our work from the training ground into the match arena and are delivering a level of consistency every week.”

In terms of earning a high approval rating from the Rangers fans in the early days of his managerial tenure, Warburton could scarcely have done much better than last Saturday’s 6-2 win over Hibernian at Easter Road in the first round of the Petrofac Training Cup.

The Englishman has already been welcomed by fans waving loaves of Warburtons bread, while a song to the tune of My Old Man’s a Dustman has been contrived in his honour with the curious assertion he “wears a magic hat”.

“I’ve got a 21-year-old son who keeps me updated on that kind of stuff,” smiled Warburton. “I have no share in the revenue of the bread, I can assure you, and I don’t have a magic hat! Listen, it’s great but with supporters being supporters, you have to make sure you maintain that consistency I’m talking about. You don’t want to be up here one week and down there the next.