Stubbs Downplays The L(oaf)’s ‘Achievements’

Alan Stubbs has attempted to downplay Rangers strong start to the season by dismissing Mark Warburton’s achievements as ‘easy’ after the Ibrox side splashed the cash to introduce ten new players to the club since the latter’s arrival.

The Hibs boss was clearly less than impressed with the media hype over the fallen Glasgow giants who failed to make any sort of title challenge last season, finishing third behind both Hibs and Hearts.

Stubbs takes his men west on Sunday for an early kick off which brings the second clash of the two teams in a month with Rangers winning a Petrofac Cup tie 6-2 at Easter Road against a much weakened Hibees.

Having watched Warburton’s outfit chalk up two convincing league victories on the bounce plus a Scottish League Cup tie it appears Stubbs isn’t fully trusting of the superlatives being distributed in the mainstream media who have been gushing with their praise of New Rangers.

He told Hibs TV: ‘It’s very easy when you’ve got money to spend to bring in much better players than what was there at the start.

‘Rangers have started the season strongly, they’ve started well. When you buy good players, which they’ve obviously brought in, sometimes it does not necessarily take a long a time to gel.

‘Compared to where they are last season to now, it is a transformation of the squad but they’ve spent a lot of money as well.

‘Their start to the season has been very strong – there is no denying that – and we’ve seen from their second half performance against us that when things go their way, they can be a dangerous team.

‘But for the first 45 minutes, if anyone looks at the game, we showed we can be a dangerous team as well.

‘I think the most important thing is that we perform and play to the best of our abilities. If we do that then we know we’re capable of getting a result.’

Stubbs is right to feel confident in his side’s ability having won 4 of the 6 league & playoff clashes against Rangers last season.

Warburton might feel a little hard done to by Stubbsy’s comments but it’s fair to say titles aren’t dished out in August. Here’s hoping Hibs can back up their manager’s talk on the park come 12:30 on Sunday.

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