Former England international Chris Sutton has accused Rangers chairman Dave King of penny pinching in the way he showed Mark Warburton the door at Ibrox.
Warburton left the club last week after an ugly battle with the Rangers board as it was claimed his agent was trying to engineer a move down south for his client and spoke with the club hierarchy to broker a deal.
Rangers chairman King came out with a strong statement at the weekend, criticising the former Gers boss’ management and accusing him of leaking confidential information to the media.
However, Sutton is not buying King’s words and stressed that if the Rangers chairman was critical of Warburton’s management then why didn’t he sack him before last week.
The former Scotland and Celtic star feels the only reason the Rangers chairman didn’t sack the former manager before last week as he wanted to save money on his departure.
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Sutton wrote in his column for the Daily Record: “Looks to me as if the decision had already been made and strengthens the general perception that King saw an opportunity and acted upon that instead of dealing with the situation with his own conviction.
“He sacked Warburton because he is trying to save a few quid and then released a statement hammering the former boss and various areas of his management and achievements.
“Well if that’s what he actually thought, why did not act before the agent walked in through the front door at Ibrox?
“Basically, regardless of his strong words in the statement, if King had those doubts about Warburton and he was acting in the best interests of Rangers, he’d have sacked him long before last Friday.
“If King thought of Warburton what he said in the statement which came out last Saturday, then it would appear the only reason he wasn’t sacked beforehand was because of penny-pinching.”
There is talk of Rangers appointing Alex McLeish as a caretaker boss before taking a decision on a permanent manager in the summer.
