MURTY’S MISSION IMPOSSIBLE

The team has to know who is in control. You need authority. That comes from your behaviour but also the stability within your club SAYS BRENDAN RODGERS It is up to them how they do business but (King’s address) wasn’t helpful to him. ‘Yeah, thanks — than

BRENDAN Rodgers and Neil Lennon believe Graeme Murty has been thrust into an impossible position by the lack of stability at Rangers.

The interim Ibrox manager is clinging to his post after last weekend’s Scottish Cup semi-final thrashing to Celtic was followed by a dressing-room meltdown and the suspensions of Kenny Miller and Lee Wallace.

Rodgers believes Murty’s authority at Rangers has been undermined and weakened by an absence of leadership and stability from above — as he identified support from the Parkhead boardroom as a key plank of Celtic’s success.

Lennon, meanwhile, argued yesterday that Murty’s authority was undermined by the Ibrox board the minute it refused to make a long-term commitment to him.

‘You have to have authority,’ said Rodgers. ‘No matter what your position is, that is one of the things — the team has to know who is in control.

‘Where it is different from Graeme’s situation is that he is only temporary until the end of the season and of course that is difficult. It is difficult for the group and it is difficult for the players because they are unsure.

‘Any of us in a line of work will know that if you are working where it is not stable then it is a lot more challenging than if there is stability.

‘There is no doubt as a leader — whether you are a head coach or a manager — you need to have authority.

‘Authority comes from how you work, from your role, your behaviour but also through stability within your club.’

Hibs boss Lennon has sympathy for Murty, who stepped up from his day job as development team manager and enjoyed a degree of success around the turn of the year. Matters came unstuck, however, over the course of the two recent matches with Celtic. Approaching Sunday’s Scottish Cup semi-final on the back of a 3-2 defeat to ten-men Celtic, the fall-out of a 4-0 loss was the suspensions of Miller and Wallace for critical remarks the pair are said to have directed at Murty at full-time. While Lennon is unable to say whether the players crossed the line, he believes Murty’s position was undermined by the board’s refusal to back him for the long term. ‘Players are still entitled to their opinion after the game, so long as there is a level of respect,’ said Lennon. ‘I don’t know the ins and outs of what went on after the game on Sunday but it does seem to be a bit of a mountain out of a molehill, really. ‘You have two experienced players there giving their opinions but the problem Graeme has is that for so long he has been an interim manager. ‘So when things are going well everyone is buying into it and saying: “This is great” but when things aren’t going well then the players can say: “Well, you’re not the manager, you might not be the manager for much longer, so I can speak to you how I like”.

‘And that is the position Graeme has found himself in. I think he has dealt with things pretty well but it has been unfair at times.’

Murty’s position seemed to be further undermined by chairman Dave King’s address to season-ticket holders in the build-up to the game, which pointed towards a change at the helm in the summer.

Asked how he would have taken that, Lennon replied: ‘Yeah, thanks — thanks a million! It is up to them how they want to do their business but I certainly don’t think it was helpful to him or his staff.’

Rodgers also expressed sympathy for Murty after the Under-20s coach was asked to steady a listing ship following Pedro Caixinha’s sacking. He believes the hard lessons of seven months in charge of Rangers are the equivalent of ten years managing somewhere else.

‘I have empathy for him, of course, because up until last summer he was a guy that was a budding young coach, who was building his career really well,’ said Rodgers.

‘And then he had the opportunity to go in to manage on a temporary basis and then, through the good work he did, he was given the opportunity through to the end of the season.

‘He has gained, in that period, this period through to the end of the season, seven or eight months. He’s done about ten years of learning in that time and that’s going to set him up for the rest of his career.

‘Things will have happened on and off the field, management and coaching, you never learn unless you’re in there. Even as a No 2 you are close — but it’s totally different. You never know until you become the manager.

‘So there are a lot of things he will have learned in this period and it will benefit him going forward.

‘It won’t feel like that now. It doesn’t because the spotlight is shining right on you but he will be better for it, whatever happens. He will see that at the right time.’

Rodgers suffered blips in the early days of his management career, lasting just seven months at Reading before bouncing back at Swansea, then Liverpool.

‘When I think of my time at Watford I had a great time there, decided to leave when I was offered the Reading job and very quickly I was out of work,’ he said. ‘I had a period of reflection and there were a couple of key items within that.

‘I knew I could work how I work but I learned things in that period that made me better going into the Swansea job. Then you go into Liverpool and it is a different stratosphere in relation to the management of such a huge club. The experience there then helped me coming here — how you cope and manage all of that.

‘It is experience, it is going through it and it is having those adverse moments as well. Otherwise there is no learning.

‘If it is all hunky dory and it is all nice, there’s no learning. It is like us — we lost 7-1, we lost 7-0. You have to then manage that to ensure your players can go again and they are not going to have the ill-effects of it. That is management.’