Headstrong Murty ready to conduct harmony at Ibrox
Acrobatics source of some embarrassment for interim manager but focus is on second
N embarrassing collapse which summed up Rangers’ season. That was just one punchline which has been uncharitably applied to Graeme Murty’s piece of failed touchline acrobatics during the 2-1 defeat against Dundee at Dens Park.
A backwards roll into a handstand which never materialised, instead the 42-year-old crumpled to the ground with egg on his face, the incident captured in all its glory by the Sky cameras for posterity. In the old days, it would have been You’ve Been Framed material. These days Murty’s fate is even worse. The video clip has already gone viral and let’s just say that he is going to see rather a lot of it.
Speaking for the first time since the incident – which was sparked by Harry Forrester missing a close-range chance which would have got Rangers back on terms on the day – Murty insisted yesterday that he was mortified about suddenly becoming such a social media sensation, and joked that he usually finishes with the flourish of an Olympic gymnast.
The one thing he had no need to look sheepish about is the passion he showed on the touchline. Indeed, if certain Rangers players had showed similar enthusiasm and zeal during the 90 minutes they might not have been in that predicament in in the first place.
“It was kind of a visual representation of how I was feeling,” said Murty. “I honestly thought we had got back into it. Personally, I am absolutely mortified. I am getting so much grief and rightly so.
“It normally comes back up into a perfect handstand,” he said. “But about halfway up, I thought: ‘What am I doing?’ I hoped that no one had seen it – forgetting it was on Sky!
“But you know what? It was just the emotion of the situation. Because we had put ourselves in such a hard place and I thought the lads had done it by digging themselves out. We just couldn’t get that finish.”
It didn’t take long for Murty to understand the scale of his new-found stardom. He had hardly finished giving his post-match thoughts to the media by the time he caught someone watching the clip on their mobile. “I actually saw it just after the press conference,” said Murty.
“Some of the journalists were talking and the guy had it on his phone already. As I walked past I caught a glimpse of it and thought: ‘That’s my future right there’. Imagine what I would have done if we had scored!”
Onto the serious business, then, and the Ibrox side’s increasingly desperate bid to overhaul Aberdeen and finish in second place.
This has been another week of soul searching at Murray Park, with many of the club’s players being given the floor to say their piece ahead of tomorrow’s visit to Inverness.
While Murty is happy with the support he has received from the board, as yet he has no idea how long he will be in charge nor if any reinforcements will have arrived before the visit to Parkhead on March 12, where Celtic could even claim their sixth top-flight title in a row.
It is the kind of pressurised situation which even certain experienced figures would run a mile from. But the man himself said yesterday he still felt “dazzled” and “fortunate” to be able to cut his teeth at such a club.
In terms of pressure, the only comparison he could draw was that of battling against relegation from the Premier League with Reading. But unlike his playing days, once the players go on the field, there was only so much he could influence things. A man of hidden depths, Murty drew the comparison between his own situation and the conductor of an orchestra.
“As a player, you are able to be on the pitch implementing stuff,” he said. “As a coach, it is different. I once saw a fantastic TED talk by a guy called Benjamin Zander, who is a fantastic conductor. He said he relies on the players in his orchestra for his power, because he makes no sound. Coaching is exactly like that. I don’t make a sound. I don’t kick a ball. But what you see on the football pitch directly correlates to what I have done during the week. That feeling of not holding on too tight is the hardest changeover from footballer to coach.”
At least whatever Murty was thinking as he paced up the Dens Park touchline at half-time on Sunday paid dividends. “What was going through my head was the best manager I ever played for in terms of controlling his emotions: Steve Coppell,” said Murty. “Regardless of whether the team was up or down, he very rarely let it show because he was more concerned not with what had happened, but how they were going to implement things to go forward and improve.
“In the talk, I was trying to get rid of all the negativity. I had to try and give positive things we were going to implement,” he added.
“The players deserve credit for the improvement in the second half, but it’s too late and points are gone. They know the intensity we need to play at is something that can’t be turned on and off. They have to be ready to go from minute one.”