Good Afternoon.
Should they survive their precarious financial situation, and should various court cases not cause any ‘extreme’ difficulties for them, Sevco might ultimately like to take a look at their new manager.
[NB For the benefit of any passing Sevconians… yes of COURSE I know ‘Sevco are coming’, and I am CLEARLY feeling ‘the fear’… Hope that helps.]
The Warbmeister may be the world’s greatest coach and tactician but boy does he seem to have a hard time dealing with a defeat. Which makes you wonder how he’ll cope when put under some genuine pressure.
The sort of pressure that comes from playing in a top division against nothing but full-time teams, and with a player budget that doesn’t dwarf everyone else’s.
Anyone who saw Sevco v St Johnstone this week (and I am not convinced Warbo did, even though he was pictured pitch-side), will know that the Perth side put in a pretty accomplished performance and roundly beat Sevco.
End of story. You might think.
But when subsequently confronted with his pre-match comments about the lack of a gulf between the top two divisions in Scotland, Warbs has stuck to his oh-so ‘respectful’ guns.
He almost sounded irked when asked about it in his press conference prior to today’s big win against Morton.
And there he was again this morning in the Sunday Mail, courtesy of this Gordon Waddell piece.
Mark Warburton: We need 16-team top flight because gap is so slim
To be fair to Warbo, he does say he is no expert and it’s ‘all about opinions’… And the Sunday Mail does use the juiciest parts of his remarks to imply he is actually calling for a 16 team top tier [tabloids, eh?!].
However, Warbo’s own quotes are worth a look:
“A bigger league is a solution but in terms of the bigger debate we must get investment into Scottish football.”
“I’m just speaking as a guy who has come into Scottish football this season. I’m not speaking as an expert, just giving my opinion.”
“Is playing teams four, five, six times a season a disincentive for fans? I think it is. Playing teams that often – apart from the obvious one with the excitement of the Old Firm derby – is overkill sometimes.”
Asked if a 16-team top league, Warbs insisted: “In my humble opinion I think it would be.”
“I’m sure there are arguments against and for – and everyone would have a valid case. But football’s about opinions and that would be my answer to it.
“I’m looking from a football perspective but some short-term pain for long-term gain could be a relevant quote here.
“I’m sure Rangers going away and taking seven or eight thousand fans to a game is an injection of cash which is much needed. Clubs might lose that for one game but I’m sure the longer-term health of Scottish football would be better and we’d see some investment coming in.”
Ah the myth of the ‘benefits of the Blue Pound’!
And oh the irony of the inexperienced manager of a loan-dependent tribute act of a rule-breaking and creditor-stiffing club preaching about the health of Scottish football!
Warbs has yet to actually experience the full repetition of the Scottish season and is in no real position to comment. Least of all about the ‘Old Firm’ which is gone and which he can never experience.
He also does a disservice to the likes of Hearts, Hibs, Queen of the South and Alloa whose reappeared fixtures against Sevco last season were highly entertaining and often rewarding for those sides!
He may still be relatively new to the job, but it seems that the Warbmeister has learned quickly from Dave King, and can’t help but talk about Celtic:
“Where would Celtic’s budget sit in the English Championship? I don’t know, 10th maybe? So the biggest club in Scotland right now in terms of the Premiership, where would they come in the English Championship? And that’s irrespective of all the Premier League clubs.”
“So that tells you that we – as in Scottish football – must move as quickly as possible to solve that problem.”
“The gap is only going to get bigger. And right now everyone is talking about it but no action is being taken.”
There he goes again with a lecture from a position of little knowledge, the lower leagues and a long long way from the moral high ground!
Warburton almost sounds like he thinks he is the manager of Rangers rather than Sevco.
I am sorry Mark, but you still lost convincingly to St Johnstone and your pre-match comments are still biting you on the arse.
How about accosting your own board over the implications of a different sort of gap, instead? You know, the one between the “club’s” income and expenditure…
Finally, here’s something for Clumpaneers to ponder. Look through that Gordon Waddell piece and replace “Warburton” with “McCoist”.
And ask yourself if anything ever really changes at Sevco.
#KeepOnClumping
The Clumpany 
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