MARK Warburton’s first match in charge of Rangers at Ibrox – Tuesday’s friendly with Burnley – appears in danger of being played out in front of a disappointingly low crowd.
The 52-year-old Englishman’s appointment as manager has been well received by followers of the Ladbrokes Championship side, but new signings have been thin on the ground with Andy Halliday only the fourth addition to the first-team squad.
The Ibrox club were also making progress last night on negotiations with Wigan Athletic for right-back James Tavernier and striker Martyn Waghorn with reports from England stating that verbal agreements had been reached.
There has also been speculation linking Warburton with Scott Allan of Hibernian and Sheffield Wednesday forward Stevie May, but the £200,000 agreed with Wigan for defender Rob Kiernan remains the only transfer fee paid out so far.
One prominent member of the staff at Ibrox stated on social media that the tickets sold for Tuesday’s game by close of business on Friday “wouldn’t fill The Sandy Jardine Stand”.
The stadium plan on the ticket section of Rangers’ website shows widespread availability in the areas of the ground that will be open.
Halliday, freed by Bradford City at the end of last season, is in line to make his debut against Burnley after agreeing a two-year contract with the side he was released from as a 15-year-old.
“I lived on Copland Road when I was young, so Ibrox was near enough in my back garden,” the 23-year-old midfielder said. “My whole family are mad Rangers fans and I had a season ticket from when I was four. I had it for 15 or 16 years and followed the team everywhere.
“When I was released it felt like the worst thing that had happened in my career. Looking back, it’s probably the best thing. I always knew, deep down, that there would be a chance I could come back here.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel