LET’S END THE IBROX WAITING GAME, SAYS MURTY
Murty battles on but even he can see the benefits of having a new boss in place
Rangers interim boss graeme Murty believes an end to the managerial issue hanging over Ibrox would benefit everyone associated with the club.
Murty has been in temporary charge for the past three matches and will do so for a fourth time tonight at Dens Park.
While he insists he is happy to remain in the post for as long as required, he concedes the uncertainty surrounding the club is far from ideal.
The question marks regarding the replacement for Pedro Caixinha, who was sacked four weeks ago, remain and the news coming out of Pittodrie yesterday that Derek McInnes was staying in the north east further muddied the waters.
With fans becoming increasingly frustrated that no solution appears in sight, the man left holding the baby admits the lack of clarity is an issue.
‘It would be good for all involved if we had someone in place, whether that be me or someone else,’ said Murty. ‘But until that happens we are coping. We are actually moving forward.
‘The players are working extremely hard. They are doing their bit — that’s all they can think about.
‘I can’t think about it (the search for a new manager) either, so if there is people outwith the club speculating and saying things, they can crack on.
‘We’ll just make sure that things in-house are taken care of properly.’
Murty has never sought to put his personal ambitions ahead of that of the club but his admission just a week ago that he would be willing to take the job until the end of the season — if asked — suggested he was becoming more comfortable in the role with each passing day. In that respect, the loss to Hamilton last week was wounding.
rightly or wrongly, many who were beginning to champion him for the position were performing U-turns based on the frustrations of 90 minutes.
‘I was deflated because you have to deal with the situation of dominating a game for 45 minutes and then there was 45 minutes which we spent chasing, which I don’t think we should have done,’ explained Murty.
‘But if I was to say we have been behind for 45 minutes out of the time I have been in charge, I would have been quite satisfied. I didn’t feel that way on saturday.
‘I just had to make sure that when we come in on Monday you give the players really clear reasons for what happened and really clear methods in how to move forward.
‘We need to score goals when we’re on top. We need to take our opportunities, we also need to have a much better structure behind the ball so we can sustain pressure and not allow teams to counter-attack as quickly as Hamilton did.
‘More than that, we need to keep trusting what we did in the first half rather than getting anxious. We could have given ourselves much better opportunities in the second half.’
While rangers have not had their problems to seek this week, an occasional indulgence in a little spot of schadenfreude would be understandable. If your own team aren’t good enough to make it on to the winner’s podium, seeing a sworn enemy trip up on the way can be a small consolation.
If Celtic’s domestic dominance has given them no indirect source of joy, the travails of their great rivals in europe has provided some brief respite from their own concerns. Last year, Brendan rodgers’ men shipped seven goals to Barcelona. Paris saint-germain repeated the trick on Wednesday night in the French capital, having previously scored five in glasgow.
But amid whatever harmless pleasure there is to be gleaned by seeing a rival beaten in such a manner, a sobering truth lurks: If a Celtic side which finished last season 39 points ahead of the Ibrox men can be dismantled in that fashion, hypothetically speaking, what would happen to rangers?
If there are those who would privately gulp at such a prospect, though, Murty is not among them.
‘It makes me hungrier than ever to get back up there and compete with the very best and see how far we have to go,’ he said.
‘We do something similar with the young lads but that is a junior level. at the top level, we all want to see european nights at Ibrox and the best teams coming to play and measure ourselves against them.
‘I know the players do, I know the coaching staff do. We want to see top teams and put ourselves to the challenge. That is what this club needs to be about.
‘although it was difficult for them across the way the other day, we would love to be in the situation to play against those top clubs like they did.’
a decade after a commendable Champions League campaign against Barcelona, Lyon and stuttgart started the club on a journey towards the UEFA Cup final, the chance to joust with the giants again seems remote. These days, the aims are much more modest. stringing three league wins together, starting tonight at Dens Park, would at least allow the horse to be put before the cart.
In recent context, last week’s defeat to Hamilton was a surprise but hardly a shock. six wins from 15 league matches on home turf in 2017 isn’t nearly good enough and perhaps speaks to players being unable to handle the pressure the light blue jersey brings.
‘If that’s the case, if they do feel like that, then they have to stand up to it,’ added Murty. ‘It won’t ever change at this football club because it’s built on winning and they have to shoulder that burden, if indeed it is a burden.
‘It’s a privilege to have that air of expectation behind you. You can use that as really good energy to go forward and take the game to the opposition.’
Were it not for alfredo Morelos’s extraordinary profligacy last saturday, Hamilton would not have enjoyed their first league win at Ibrox since 1926. nor could Murty possibly account for ross McCrorie’s first costly mistake in a rangers shirt — a blind back-pass which allowed David Templeton to open the scoring.
Murty’s belief in McCrorie has not wavered in the slightest as a consequence of that high-profile blunder. still just 19, such things are bound to happen from time to time. ensuring they are quickly consigned to history is the important thing.
‘I talked to ross straight after the game and I questioned what he was doing, firstly,’ said Murty. ‘He said he didn’t see Templeton. But what assured me was his response to the mistake and the mature way he dealt with the game after that.
‘I have seen players crumble after making a mistake. I have seen players go right down. He didn’t hide once.’