Jamie must win over Gerrard all over again
Jamie Murphy knows he faces an uphill battle to re-establish himself as a Rangers player under Steven Gerrard.
The offensive midfielder played just seven games under the new manager before suffering a serious knee injury last August, which ended his season.
The 29-year-old is now in full training with the squad at their pre-season camp in Portugal, hoping to make an early impression on his gaffer.
“I hope the manager knows what I am capable of,” said Murphy.
“I had a good pre-season last year and games before I got injured. But it is up to me to impress them again.
“If you stay at the same level, I don’t think you are going to keep up at Rangers.
“It is about me trying to improve and get better every day. It might take a couple of weeks or it might take a couple of months.
“I am prepared to work hard to try to get back to where I was and improve on that.
“A lot of players have come back from a similar injury to mine better – though there are a lot of them who haven’t come back.
“I’ve got to be in the gym before training every day, doing some activation before we start – just little, different things that I maybe wouldn’t have had to do before.
“I have to do all that now so I can keep my career going as long as possible.
“I can’t wait to be back involved. We improved last year, and while we still never reached where we wanted to, improving is important.
“This year, hopefully we can improve again and take that last step. We have a great squad here and everyone wants the same thing.”
Rangers have a friendly with Oxford United next Sunday before heading off on their Europa League travels to St Joseph’s of Gibraltar or Kosovo outfit, Prishtina on July 11.
Murphy played in four qualifiers in the tournament last season and is desperate to be involved again.
“Playing in Europe is something I have always enjoyed, whether that be at Motherwell or here at Rangers,” he told the club’s website.
“It is an exciting time for the fans too. They get excited by European games and the players do as well.
“We want to go as far as we possibly can.”