IAN DURRANT
‘Leaving Rangers was hard. But I’ve had setbacks before. I’m not just going to roll over and disappear.’
IAN DURRANT is no stranger to careerchanging bad news being delivered in clinical, direct fashion. Doctors and surgeons, who tended the brilliant former midfielder’s most severe injuries, served him devastating bulletins. Walter Smith shocked him with the advice he would be best heading for the Ibrox exit door at the age of 27 when Everton called.
In the case of another former Rangers manager, Graeme Souness, Durrant literally had to take one on the chin. A right hook was administered during a training game of five-asides that floored the young star who admits he wisely stayed down to avoid further confrontation.
Durrant took a blow again last month, fielding the hit that his association with Rangers — stretching back 32 years — was over.
He admitted that it wasn’t entirely unexpected as he had an intuition that change was coming the way of the club’s Under-20 manager.
However, that did not spare him the feeling of devastation when it fell upon the Ibrox hierarchy to inform him of the decision — 18 months after a coaching reshuffle by a previous regime stripped him of first-team coach duties.
‘I had a fair idea there were going to be changes,’ said Durrant. ‘I could sense that something was up. I’ve been in the game long enough. But that didn’t lessen the blow. To me, I’m not leaving a company. I’m leaving an institution where I’ve been brought up and spent most of my life.
‘But I have a new chapter to write now. Sadly, that will be away from Rangers. I’m not just going to roll over and disappear. I’m looking forward to getting into football again because I already miss it and I want to enjoy it for a few more years yet.’
Durrant is convinced Rangers will enjoy the next few years, too. He has left a club on the rise again. Fresh from smashing their way to the Championship title and reaching the Scottish Cup Final, manager Mark Warburton has strengthened with depth and quality to prepare Rangers for an attack on the Ladbrokes Premiership title.
Having been part of a coaching staff in the firing line of a series of ruinous regimes which dismantled the club to the bare bones, Durrant is delighted to see Rangers restored to health.
Losing colleagues synonymous with the club during savage culls undertaken in the months after a host of hierarchy figures enjoyed bumper pay-offs were among the lowest moments of four painful years. He just wishes he could have been around to carry on contributing to the current good times.
‘I was there for really terrible times inside Rangers,’ said Durrant. ‘So it feels a shame not to be around as the club is on the up again. Through liquidation, a lot of great Rangers people lost jobs. I was fortunate to get kept on, so I realise and appreciate what I’ve had. Others weren’t as lucky as me.
‘It was heartbreaking to see people leave who I’d known since I was the baby at the club. People whose lives were Rangers. I’m still young enough and have a chance to move on. They were in a position where it must have been awful for them to be sacked.
‘Office staff, Laura Tarbert the manager’s secretary of 40 years’-plus service. People who held the club together.
‘Those were horrible times to feel the atmosphere around Murray Park, see the empty rooms. Now it’s vibrant. It was sad to leave what I’m sure is going to be a successful environment again.’
During those grim times, Durrant was demoted to Under-20s coach when Ally McCoist left the manager’s post in December 2014. From that ugly circumstance, Durrant grew to embrace the chance to send young men on the pathway towards the first team, a journey he made as a teenager.
If finishing 13 of 17 in the SPFL Development League was a contributory factor in Durrant being removed from the role, then he believes there were contributory factors in the struggle for results.
Ryan Hardie, Liam Kelly, Robbie Crawford, Ryan Sinnamon, Jordan Thompson, Andy Murdoch and Tom Walsh were eligible players spending much time away on loan. ‘Getting the Under-20 job came about in bad circumstances but I went into it focused on doing a job for Rangers,’ added Durrant.
‘I didn’t curl up into a ball. I grew to really like the role. I’ve always got on well with the young players. I think I played a big part in some of them signing, some staying and some improving at the club.
‘Being a homegrown player myself, I like to see the Rangers fan living the dream. I hope the next coach in can create dreams for the next batch. The problem was that sending many out on loan left us short. If I had a backbone of those players, I think results would have been better.
‘The boys coming through were too young and Billy Kirkwood’s Under-17s were going for cups and leagues, so we couldn’t dip into them.
‘Whoever takes over will reap the benefits and have a team to build on. I wish them every success.’
Looking ahead to his own interests, instead of back, did take some getting used to in the days after he swept up his belongings in the office shared with Billy McLaren, the head of academy recruitment. Support from former Murray Park colleagues and messages from around football were welcome.
Publicly, via his newspaper column, the kind words of Barry Ferguson struck a consoling chord. The former Rangers captain and Clyde manager expressed his disappointment at learning that no one in the Ibrox football department informed Durrant of the change. A man of Durrant’s standing in the club, claimed Ferguson, deserved better than that.
‘It was hard,’ admitted Durrant. ‘To know you won’t be back. Clearing a desk for the first time in my life. It was tough leaving after knowing people for so long — kitchen and security staff. I’d built a great relationship with Billy McLaren, too. I was feeling pretty down for a few days.
‘Then your mobile phone comes up with the reminders I’d set for the start of pre-season, June 23. What tournaments were coming up. It’s the first time in 32 years I’m not starting a season. That’s when it hits you.
‘But I’ve had severe injuries and come back from them. I spoke to Coisty, Walter Smith, people I regard as my friends. Messages of support from genuine football people have been great.
‘I was taken aback by Barry’s column. My son read it out to me when I was on holiday. When you’ve worked with someone like Barry and helped him along, like I did in his progression, it’s always good to think they’ve taken time out to think of you if you go through tough times. Derek McInnes was another one.’
Such niceties are routinely brushed aside when Durrant is mercilessly ribbed by pals for his Rangers managerial record that reads: ‘Played 1, lost 1’.
That was in a week when he was caretaker manager, a Scottish Cup defeat by Dunfermline in the wake of Paul le Guen’s departure and before Smith returned.
However, Durrant is happy to make the point he enjoyed a 100-per-cent winning record at Kilmarnock when he was in the dugout between the reigns of Bobby Williamson and Jim Jefferies as Dundee were beaten 3-2.
He hopes those games don’t need forensic examination on a CV in order to pave the way for a coaching return to the game soon.
‘When you have someone from the Old Firm, you have someone who is a winner, a motivator, who doesn’t accept second,’ he said. ‘It’s a hard, tough but great upbringing that makes you a better person because you know if you’ve played or managed at the Old Firm, then you can play or manage anywhere.’