MARK WARBURTON HAS demanded answers from Rangers as he reiterated his rejection of the club’s claim that he resigned from his position as manager.
Rangers announced last Friday that Warburton, his assistant David Weir and head of recruitment Frank McParland had stepped down, with Graeme Murty taking charge for Sunday’s Scottish Cup win over Greenock Morton.
But Warburton hit back to say he had not resigned and he has now accused the club of failing to respond to his questions about why they said he had.
“Given that the club has seen fit to make detailed public statements, it is important that we should clarify certain matters,” Warburton said in a statement released by the League Managers Association (LMA).
“As such we would like to formally place on record, that at no stage did we resign from our positions at Rangers.
“It is a matter of surprise to us… that despite its detailed public statements, the club has not answered key questions put to it by the LMA, in writing, requesting an explanation of why it suggested that we resigned from our positions.”
Rangers chairman Dave King said an agent acting on behalf of Warburton, Weir and McParland informed him they would be resigning with immediate effect.
“While we were dealing with the admin and press releases relating to the resignation, the agent again contacted us and asked to defer the resignation until the management had secured a new club,” King said.
“The board met to consider this request, but resolved to hold them to the original agreement.”
The imbroglio leaves Warburton, Weir and McParland in limbo and could end up in the courts.
In the meantime, the trio took the opportunity to thanks Rangers’ players and fans for their support, describing their time at the club as “an absolute privilege”.
Promoted from the second tier under Warburton last season, Rangers are currently third in the Scottish Premiership, a huge 27 points below leaders and eternal rivals Celtic.
They lost to Celtic in the Scottish League Cup semi-finals but have reached the Scottish Cup quarter-finals.
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