Mark Warburton is not prone to talking in headlines. His unwillingness to point to Sunday’s Scottish Cup semi-final between Rangers and Celtic in anything other than unique context is hardly a surprise. Yet other managers would have adopted an alternative stance, one relating to the laying down of markers and the like.
“It’s one game,” Warburton says. “You have these one-off results. Andy Halliday was in the Bradford team that beat Chelsea. It doesn’t mean Bradford are better than Chelsea. It doesn’t mean the gap between Bradford and Chelsea is any less.
“The fact of the matter is, we know there’s a gap. That’s a very respectful comment because we know we have to work hard as a team, as a club to close the gap. I keep saying it, but we do.
“For five years they have been the Premiership champions. We have to recognise that, recruit well, keep developing out environment and work hard. We’re not going to close the gap completely by August but we have to close it significantly. That’s our aim.”
Rangers’ huge budgetary advantage means their winning of Scotland’s second tier with plenty to spare is hardly worthy of lavish praise. The same applies to Celtic’s imminent retention of the Premiership. That said, Rangers followers are entitled to enjoy the marked improvement under Warburton after the routinely turgid, aimless fare as presided over by his predecessor Ally McCoist.
A basic glance at economics tells the scale of Warburton’s task to restore something approaching Glasgow parity, unless Rangers increase investment levels substantially next season. A look at the teams rightly installs Celtic as the strong favourites for this cup tie. In Leigh Griffiths, Celtic have a striker who can damage an unconvincing Rangers rearguard.
And yet, Celtic have endured a series of Hampden horror shows, losing four of their last six semi-finals at the national stadium. Ronny Deila remains a wholly unconvincing manager of the champions, to the point where his future beyond the end of this season is far from certain. Defeat to Rangers would surely confirm the Norwegian’s exit.
Warburton has expressed routine sympathy for his counterpart across Glasgow. The former Brentford manager, a newcomer to the Old Firm environment, has been taken aback at levels of intensity; and that’s without the pair being in the same league.
“The level of passion in Glasgow is completely different [to England],” Warburton says. “People live and breathe their football. That’s magnificent. You have to enjoy that and relish being in that environment. Certain things I think go to extremes sometimes. The media side is extreme in the buildup but we have to accept it and the players and staff learn from it. We had a guest in this morning, a guy involved in football at the highest levels, and he couldn’t believe the media or the coverage this game gets.
“It tells you it’s a different arena because of the media side of things. It’s a huge game, I understand that, but the media coverage is spectacular.”
Matches with deep meaning are not a new phenomenon for Warburton. Only last season, his Brentford team lost to Middlesbrough in a play-off semi-final. “That was a different type of pressure,” the 53-year-old says.
“If I said Rangers v Celtic, or Brentford v Middlesbrough, what’s the bigger game? There’s no comparison. When I say the financial pot of gold is up to £140m you can understand where I’m coming from. There was huge pressure on that game. What it meant to the winning club to get to it was huge.
“But this is a different type of game, a semi-final and we desperately want to win it and perform well. We’re in good shape. If we show the level of performance that we’ve shown many times this season, we’ll be OK.
“I don’t think Celtic will have faced many teams that look to keep the ball as we do. I hope we pose them a different challenge.” Hibernian await in the final.
