MARK Warburton was at Rangers for a year-and-a-half as manager and has now had almost two years to reflect upon his time at Ibrox. It seems though that he still just doesn’t get it.

The former Rangers boss was back in Scotland this week to discuss his time at the club, his controversial exit from it, and everything in-between. And what stuck out most from his many interesting insights into his time in the Ibrox hotseat was his comments about the ‘Going for 55’ display that Rangers supporters greeted their side with for their first game back in the Premiership.

Warburton said: “David Weir and I got to the stadium at 9am of the Hamilton game, we walked out and got the shock of our life when we saw ‘Going for 55.’ That was an unrealistic expectation having just been promoted. We weren’t going to beat Celtic that year.”

Now, Warburton must know at least a little about how the mind of your average football fan, never mind specifically a Rangers fan, works. Because he recognised at the time that these words coming directly from the mouth of a Rangers manager would have seen him given the sort of reception that the Ibrox support normally reserve for the likes of Scott Brown. Or in the near future, Steve Clarke.

And it wasn’t as if his conclusions about his side’s title chances were defeatist or wide of the mark. If those holding aloft the cards as the Rangers and Hamilton players took to the Ibrox pitch believed that goal was realistically going to be achieved during that season, and there were probably many more who did than didn’t, they would have other ideas just a couple of hours later as Rangers stuttered to a hugely anti-climactic draw.

But whether the fantasies of supporters are realistic or not is wholly beside the point. Is it not a fan’s right to get carried away, especially on that first day of the season? Take this weekend’s fifth round ties in the Scottish Cup. Despite all of the available evidence pointing to a different outcome, almost every fan travelling to a match will believe that this is their year, whether they are backing Partick Thistle, Raith Rovers or Queen of the South. Even punters following junior side Auchinleck Talbot to Tynecastle on Sunday will be picturing the celebrations after scalping Hearts.

In the case of the Old Firm, this is only magnified further, with supporters of both sides always expecting to win the league, no matter the gulf in quality that may exist between them at any one point in time. Second is never good enough and telling supporters that the best they can hope for is a runners-up spot at the start of any season, even that particular one, would be like trying to explain the theory of relativity to a Labrador. They just wouldn’t understand.

Was Warburton right that Rangers had no hope of winning the league that season? In hindsight, of course he was, but if he didn’t truly believe they could have a tilt at the title, and if that wasn’t his aim as he set out at the start of the campaign, then he truly doesn’t get Glasgow and the football landscape here.

All of the talk about coming up, consolidating, having a go in year two and then, after presumably falling short, having a right good go in year three with cash from European football behind him might sound like perfect sense. And it might have saved Rangers a lot of hassle, not to mention money, had they stuck with such a project.

But patience is thin on the ground at a club like Rangers, as Warburton himself, Pedro Caixinha and Graeme Murty can now all attest. You either win, or you’re gone. As illogical as that may seem to someone from the outside like Warburton, that’s just the way it is.

Coming from Liverpool, Steven Gerrard seems to get that. And while it may be a long shot this season, the Rangers fans will still be dreaming of going for 55.