Man but I am now, says Murty

Murty led the Gers to the first win of his short reign against St Johnstone in midweek.

After back-to-back Premiership defeats, his relief was clear to see.

But he insists the pressure that comes packaged with a contract of employment at Ibrox is something he sought out.

“This club engenders passion in people because you recognise the scale and the stature of the club,” he said.

“It has gripped me in the short time I’ve been here. It can be all consuming.

“But you have to realise and respect the history of the place, the mentality of the following and make sure that you put out a team that performs in keeping with the status of the club.

“It’s what I wanted when I came here. I wanted to experience what it means to be at a club of this stature and a club that has a level of expectation upon it.

“For my personal growth as a coach, the reason I came here was to see – although not at this early stage – what it meant to actually be in charge of a team that was expected to win every week.

“When I come out of this experience, whenever it ends, I will be a far, far better practitioner at whatever level I choose to go to.”

In the short term, that level looks likely to be back with the Gers’ Under-20s.

But coaching the first team, even for a short time, has given him a new perspective.

As a result, he is in no doubt what Rangers’ long-term goal should be.

Murty said: “The manager’s job here is a fantastic role for whoever is lucky enough to get it.

“If you project this club to where we want it to be, we should be pushing and pushing – at the minute to chase Celtic.

“But the aim can’t just be to catch them, it should be to surpass them.”