IBROX DRAMA NOW A CRISIS

Rudderless Rangers are stuck in no man’s land after putting all their chips on McInnes

EVENTS at Rangers over the past five years have often left supporters lost for words but last night’s staggering development induced the opposite effect.

Forty-two days and several hours after Pedro Caixinha hopped into his taxi outside the training base for the last time, the club’s pursuit of Derek McInnes ended with the door being slammed in the faces of its powerbrokers. Scorn and ridicule were not long in heading their way.

While it would be wrong to suggest the Aberdeen manager was the unanimous choice of directors and supporters alike, what’s beyond dispute is that he was not just the preferred candidate but the only name being whispered by those in the know.

And now this. For those tasked with smoothing the next man’s passage to the Blue Room, it was, at the one time, mortifying and deeply humbling.

They stand accused of amateurism and incompetency. Of lacking the nous to run a jumble sale let alone a major football club.

Almost three years after figuratively being carried into Ibrox by fans believing they were their saviours, their stock among the rank and file is now on a par with the despised regimes of the past. The question of whether the club have gone forward at all under them now seems valid.

No one begrudged the board the right to pause, take stock and consider all the angles after the appointment of Caixinha. They’d got that one spectacularly wrong. This one needed a belt-and-braces approach.

When days turned into weeks, there were mumblings of discontent. When a month was reached, they became more audible.

Against a backdrop of a convincing victory over Aberdeen, last Thursday’s AGM assumed a more convivial air. If the reasons behind a period of inaction remained a mystery, chairman Dave King’s words offered comfort and left little requirement to join the dots.

‘Our short-listed candidates include individuals under contract and that adds an additional unavoidable time element,’ he stated. ‘We should have something to report shortly.’

When the approach was made to Aberdeen on Tuesday, it came with an assumption. Football works through back channels. Not in a million years would Rangers have picked up the phone had they not had an indication that this was something of a shoo-in.

A boyhood Rangers fan and a former player, the assumption was that McInnes’ heart would rule his head. That after almost five years in the Granite City, he’d taken Aberdeen as far as they could go. Rangers, with almost three times Aberdeen’s budget, was the next logical step in his career path. So went the theories, at least.

As Wednesday dragged into Thursday and Thursday threatened to drag into Friday, doubts surfaced. How long does it take one man to resign from a job — even one he covets?

If Stewart Milne’s powers of persuasion are probably commensurate with those of a man worth in excess of £100million, the Dons chairman cannot change his club’s crowds, significantly increase the playing budget or make a new stadium and training centre appear at the drop of a hat.

So what does it say about the state of play at Rangers that McInnes opted to stay put? Not a great deal, apparently.

For all King insisted that funds would be made available to the manager in January, the latest set of financial figures do not suggest a club in rude health. Rangers lost £6.7m in the 12 months to June and require £7.2m of loans just to get them through the next 18 months.

The appointment of Caixinha was damaging enough. The fact he was indulged to the tune of £8m in the summer poured fuel on the fire.

It may take several transfer windows before the tanker is turned around. With Celtic edging towards a seventh straight title, time is the one commodity no Rangers manager has.

Which is not to say that there will be a shortage of candidates now rushing to fill the post McInnes seemed set for.

The question troubling Rangers supporters is whether they trust the men at the helm to make the right choice.

Apportioning blame for the latest botched job is no easy task for the simple reason that no one is quite sure who is pulling the strings.

At least when Caixinha was hired, it had the fingerprints of the three-man delegation comprising of Stewart Robertson, Andrew Dickson and Graeme Park.

But who championed McInnes? Was it those three? Was King behind it? What was the input of director of football Mark Allen? Was it a case of who shouted the loudest?

Unlike other major clubs in Scotland, no one is quite sure of the structure or the power base. It’s muddled and unruly. Exactly the kind of thing that would have put McInnes off, in fact.

What happens next is that as McInnes basks in the glory of following Alex Ferguson’s lead of knocking back Rangers, Graeme Murty faces the media ahead of tomorrow’s game with Ross County having been told he’s holding the baby until the turn of year.

With the club back in turmoil, it would seem to make perfect sense if he was placed in charge through to the summer, but making logical decisions is not the strong suit of those in the corridors of power.

Whether it’s next week, next month or next summer, the board will have to dust themselves down and go again.

Sources suggest that a Plan B to recruit another time-served, British manager had been drafted in case McInnes turned them down and, for their sakes, it’s to be hoped that B stands for brilliant.

Because the natives are beyond restless now. The faith in the men who are meant to be guiding the stricken ship to calmer waters is in short supply if not exhausted.

‘With everything about him, being a former player and a Rangers supporter, I thought that would have played a huge part in it,’ former Ibrox midfielder Derek Ferguson said last night.

‘But I think he’s had a look at all aspects. Would he have control of just the first team? With Mark Allen there as director of football, would that relationship work?

‘Derek would have liked some input on the academy side. I don’t think he’s had those assurances.

‘They’ve put all their eggs in one basket. I thought it was a gimme. So I’m absolutely stunned.

‘I think it is a bit embarrassing. For a club the stature and the size of Rangers to be without a manager for six weeks isn’t good enough.

‘Now we’ll talk about a Plan B. But the directors at the moment don’t appear to have that. They look clueless. Mr King said he was looking at people in employment. That hasn’t worked out. Is he going to take another six weeks?’