This is the best audition that Graeme could have, he’s in pole position and if he performs well he’ll give us an easy decision in the summer
Robertson gives Murty chance to land Gers top job long term
STEWART ROBERTSON reckons Graeme Murty can shoe himself into the Rangers job long term because he’s ready to give it some welly. The Ibrox managing director has refuted claims the board and director of football Mark Allen have failed in their duty after they turned to the interim boss for the rest of the campaign. They decided to show faith in the former Under-20s coach almost two months to the day since they axed Pedro Caixinha and three weeks after Derek McInnes committed his future to Aberdeen. The decision of Rangers to turn to Murty for at least the next six months amounts to the longest audition for a job since Prince Charles was in nappies. However, Robertson has seen enough in the former Reading fullback in these last few weeks to know he can reign supreme as Rangers bid to return to the top of the Scottish game.
He said: “Graeme is taking it full on as if he gets one kick of the ball and wants to give it a right good welly.
“He has a once-in-a-lifetime chance to be the boss of Rangers and it says a lot about his character and enthusiasm that he’s getting stuck into it.
“He has a different level of authority with the players now. He’s now the manager – not the guy only holding the fort until the boss comes in.
“It has to help him and must be a positive. If he was going to see it as a burden we wouldn’t have appointed him. Derek has decided to stay at Aberdeen and we wish him all the best up there. We move on.
“We looked at a wide range of candidates and still were post Derek but we weren’t overlooking the job Graeme has been doing in the last couple of months and also in his previous stint.
“As time went on we were confident he had the capability to take us forward. It wasn’t about one result, we looked at the body of work over a period of time.”
In two stints as stand-in boss in this calendar year, starting last February when he replaced Mark Warburton, Murty has taken charge of 15 games, winning nine, losing five and drawing with Celtic at Parkhead before Caixinha took up his post. In addition to McInnes Robertson admits they looked at “tens” of other candidates but none were the best fit for Rangers at this stage of their rebirth under chairman Dave King following years of financial carnage. They looked at Sam Allardyce, for example, but he demands an extensive backroom team and is used to shopping at Harrods while Rangers, at this stage, are more Home Bargains.
Other managers fell within their price range and budget but the board considered the list offered up by Allen and decided they didn’t quit fit the profile.
Robertson added: “People will think what they think. We’re not the first club to be in this situation and we won’t be the last. It’s more about the characteristics of the individual and Graeme has come across really well.
“This is the best audition he could have for the job. He’s in pole position and if he does well we’ll assess how things are evolving.
“I wouldn’t use the phrase ‘his to lose’ but if he hits the targets then it makes it very difficult for us to go anywhere else. If he performs well he’ll give us an easy decision in the summer.
“It’s harsh to criticise Mark. Nobody knows the vast amount of work that went into the search for candidates. You have to look at the individuals characteristics and how they can deal with being at Rangers. It is not an easy job for everyone.
“We looked at lots of candidates, into the tens. You do your diligence and there are all sorts of components that come into it – an individual’s make-up, financial and career aspirations.
“Do they want to be in Scotland? That can quite often be one of the stumbling blocks. There are a whole host of different reasons why people didn’t want to come.”
Rangers expect to bring up to four new players to the club next month and full-back Declan John has signed a three-and-a-half year with the club.
They can move into second early this afternoon with victory at Kilmarnock, ahead of the visit by Aberdeen to Celtic as they look to bounce back from last week’s 3-1 defeat against St Johnstone.
King told the club’s agm he expects the club to give him a return on his investment by finishing at least a comfortable second while a Scottish Cup run also remains a goal.
Robertson added: “We want to be competitive and see progression in the squad and our displays.
“That will be a big positive for Graeme and we also have the Scottish Cup to come but there are no absolute goals for him – it’s just about improving the team and finding greater consistency.
“Beating Celtic would be fantastic for the fans but we’re not saying Graeme must win this game or that. We need to win as many games as we can.
“Competing with Celtic is a big objective. That’s the only way to get back to the top.”
Murty is now the manager – not the guy holding the fort until he comes in ROBERTSON GARY RALSTON