2017-02-15

Mark Warburton has repeated his claim he did not resign as manager of Rangers and said the club will not explain why they announced their departures.

Rangers issued a statement on Friday evening saying they had accepted the resignation of manager Warburton, assistant Davie Weir and head of recruitment Frank McParland. Warburton immediately insisted that he had not quit the club.

The trio have now reiterated their position in a statement released by the League Managers Association and claimed that Rangers will not explain why they acted in the manner they did.

The statement read: "Much has been said over the last few days relating to our departure from Rangers Football Club.

"At this stage, for legal reasons, it is inappropriate for us to comment in any great detail on our departure from the club.

"However, given that the club has seen fit to make detailed public statements, it is important that we should clarify certain matters and as such we would like to formally place on record, that at no stage did we resign from our positions at Rangers."

It continued: "It is a matter of surprise to us and to the League Managers Association (LMA), which is advising all three of 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.

"For all three of us, it was an absolute privilege to be given the opportunity to work at a club that is so rich in tradition and history.

"It was an honour to be given the responsibility of returning the club to the top tier of Scottish football and we are very proud to have played our part in successfully securing promotion back to the Scottish Premiership. "

It concluded: "Winning the Petrofac Scottish Challenge Cup and beating Celtic, in a memorable semi-final to reach the Scottish Cup Final, are experiences we will never forget.

"We sincerely thank the Rangers fans for their unwavering passion and dedication. We had the good fortune to meet so many outstanding individuals and supporters of the club and we will always value their words of encouragement. We wish them great success for the seasons ahead.

"The current group of players, together with the staff at the training ground and Ibrox, have borne the huge weight of responsibility of taking a massive club back to the top flight.

"They should be proud of their togetherness and their work ethic. It has been a pleasure to work with them, and we would like to thank each and every one of them for their commitment and contribution."

Rangers: 'Agent offered resignation on Warburton's behalf'

In an open letter to supporters on Saturday, Rangers chairman Dave King elaborated on the circumstances leading to the announcement that Warburton and his colleagues had left the club.

He said an agent had secured an agreement for them to leave without compensation to take up employment elsewhere and this had been accepted by the Rangers board earlier in the week.

King said: "The management team's agent approached the club's managing director Stewart Robertson to request a meeting which was held in Glasgow on Monday this week.

"The outcome of this meeting was that the agent subsequently offered that Mark, David and Frank would resign with immediate effect without compensation as long as the club, in turn, agreed to waive compensation from any new club that they signed for.

"After discussion the board accepted this offer and employment was immediately terminated."

He added: "In order for us to achieve our ambitions we need employees that, like your board members, will always put Rangers first.

"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. I assume that the new deal had somehow collapsed at the last minute.

"The board met to consider this request but resolved to hold them to the original agreement."

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