MURTY’S SHOCK OVER IBROX HOTSEAT OFFER

New manager: I’m staggered to have even been offered the job full-time

GRAEME MURTY admits he was staggered to be offered the Rangers job – because he didn’t believe he was being considered for the position.

The 43-year-old has been appointed as the Light Blues’ manager until the end of the season after winning six of his nine matches as interim boss.

Rangers missed out on a move for Derek McInnes earlier this month as he turned down the chance to succeed Pedro Caixinha and elected to remain with Aberdeen. The Gers hierarchy have now

THE deal that had been talked about for several weeks was put together in a couple of hours. In an instant, Graeme Murty said yes and became Rangers manager.

It is a position the 43-yearold never thought he would hold and one he has repeatedly played down his chances of earning. Results, though, speak for themselves.

A record of six wins – including two over Aberdeen and one against Hibernian – from nine matches has proven good enough to see Murty lose the “interim” tag from his role.

As he impressed on the touchline and in front of the cameras, his case for being appointed as Pedro Caixinha’s successor steadily increased. Even when the question was asked, it wasn’t the one that he was expecting, though.

“I went to Stewart Robertson’s house,” Murty said. “I’d previously talked to Mark [Allen] about my position as interim, how I was feeling, how I felt the squad was doing.

“The deal and the term was decided on Thursday and it was fairly instant.

“It was really a no-brainer for me, you get offered one chance, possibly the chance of a lifetime to manage a football club like this and it’s not something you could ever turn down.

“Throughout this week, I’ve just been focusing on getting guys ready for the festive games. I hadn’t actually been thinking about my own position. But we had been discussing targets, structures and we were l ooking at players.

“I just thought that, overall, we would be talking about the club and moving forward. I didn’t think I’d be on the agenda as an item.

“It turns out I was and everything was agreed at Stewart’s house on Thursday night. I honestly didn’t think we’d be talking about it.”

The appointment of Murty brings a resolution, albeit potentially only a temporary one, to Rangers’ search for a manager after he was installed until the end of the season.

A move for Derek McInnes fell through at the 11th hour after he opted to remain at Aberdeen. As one door closed, another has opened.

Managing Director Stewart Robertson defended what some have seen as an inexplicably long and drawn-out recruitment process and Murty is determined to prove the wait has been worth it for the Gers.

“I’m not naive enough to think there wasn’t pursuit of other people, that’s fine,” he said. “That’s where the board wanted to go but they have also seen fit in my work they have seen in this period to put a great deal of faith in me.

“If anything, that’s a greater motivation and a positive to me than any negative to being second, third or fourth or not being on the list.

“All I can do is realise the scope and scale of the opportunity, be grateful for that and try and maximise it to the fullest.”

MURTY has earned the backing of his squad and the support of the Ibrox crowd since he returned to the dugout, but goodwill only goes so far at a club that demands success and silverware.

The games that Rangers haven’t won in recent weeks – against Hamilton, Dundee and St Johnstone – could prove costly come the end of the campaign as Aberdeen and then Celtic are hunted down.

That is the ultimate challenge for Murty but he also has many smaller battles to fight as he attempts to silence his critics.

“I have no doubts there are Rangers fans and pundits who are quite satisfied with this,” he said.

“I have no doubts there are lots of people who are dissatisfied.

“It is my job to turn that into belief. If I do that through good performances and results, and ultimately we start to challenge - as I believe we could and should - then hopefully I give the board a difficult decision to make in the summer.

“If I don’t then it won’t be through a lack of trying. But I don’t just want to be good at stuff - I want to be outstanding. I want to push on.”

Murty has been in control of first team matters since Caixinha was sacked just hours after the 1-1 draw against Kilmarnock back in October.

Today, he will face the same opposition at Rugby Park as another new Light Blue era begins with his side eight points adrift of Celtic. Second best is realistically all Rangers can achieve in the top flight this term. Murty will never settle for that though.

“I think the mindset I’ve always had as a player and a coach and now as a manager is I want to get better, I want to get better at my daily job,” he said. “I want to do the best job I can at any given time but I want to improve. I want to smash everything I do out of the park.

“This job is no different. The mindset I’ve always have is can I leave in a better place than I arrived and that goes for this job, that goes for the players, that goes for the end of the season and if by then I’ve done that then you never know what can happen.”