SAYS CARETAKER BOSS MURTY
IT is said that ability is nothing without opportunity. Graeme Murty has one, but he may not get the other just yet. He doesn’t know whether he wants the chance, or whether he would make the most of it. One day he will, though.
Murty may only be i n interim charge of Rangers but he has immersed himself in the role for the second time.
He has won admirers once again. Now he wants to win another three points when Partick Thistle visit Ibrox this afternoon.
It is that ambition that has driven him this week as he has reflected on the win ove r Hearts at Murrayfield in what was Rangers’ first match since the sacking of Pedro Caixinha.
Murty has never championed himself to be the next boss at Ibrox. The job continues to pull him in, however. “I thought I had taken a step back,” Murty said. “I was out with my wife [on Thursday] and we walked up Dumgoyne Hill, it was a beautiful view on a glorious day, and all I could think about when she wasn’t directly talking to me was ‘ what happens if this or that happens and who do I want to do that?’. “She asked me a question and I was like ‘hmm?’. She knew exactly what I had been thinking about and where I was coming from. She had some short, sharp words for me and I focussed back in again. “It’s just the nature of the game. It is all-consuming and so it should be because it’s a fantastic experience. That I’m sitting at home thinking about patterns of play for Rangers Football Club still sends shivers down my spine. “It is not fair to say that Mrs Murty does not want me to become the manager of Rangers in any shape or form. “If anything, she wants me to stop doing myself down and to have more belief in myself because she has lots of belief in me. All she wants is when I’m not at work, to not be at work.” The faith that his wife, Karen, has in him is not misplaced and the longer Murty continues to impress in front of the cameras and on the touchline, the more people will start to talk up his credentials of succeeding Caixinha. It is a chance he admits would be too good to turn down, although it is one that he is not likely to get at present as the Ibrox board continue their search for the next Light Blues boss.
“Just because I talk about the collective, about empowering players - that doesn’t mean I don’t believe in my own ability,” Murty said.
“It doesn’t mean I don’t believe I can do this job. It’s that I believe in empowering people.
“For me to talk myself up isn’t something I’m comfortable with or have ever done.
“I’d far rather talk up those people who have helped me, pushed me and made this experience possible for me. I’ve never been comfortable with it being about one individual.”
Murty was in charge for six matches earlier this year as he assumed power from Mark Warburton and handed it on to Caixinha at the start of his illfated seven month reign.
HE HAS once again stepped up from the Under-20s to answer a call of duty from the Ibrox board but, as yet, has been given no indication how long his services will be required at first team level. But, does he now feel he is ready to be a manager in his own right?
Murty said: “I know what my wife would tell me to say! The honest answer is, I don’t know.
“To caveat that, if I was given an opportunity to be manager,