MURTY READY FOR DERBY DAY MAYHEM THANKS TO HIS OLD MAN
GRAEME MURTY did not require a fact-finding mission to Celtic Park to sample a flavour of the fervour of Old Firm rivalry earlier this season. His reminder was the reaction of dad Edward and family as they digested the news that he was joining Rangers.
The caretaker manager reports that his retired Glasgow-born father is currently ‘chilling in Spain’, near Murcia. That idyllic existence was somewhat disrupted when Murty accepted the post of Under-20 coach at Ibrox in August.
Murty was North Yorkshire-born and spent the bulk of his playing career at Reading. Most of the west of Scotland sporting niceties with which dad was brought up therefore formed little part of the making of the man who takes charge of Rangers at Celtic Park today.
When speaking on Friday, he had yet to discuss the visit to the east end of Glasgow with Murty senior. After all, he had fully expected to have stepped aside to make way for Pedro Caixinha for most of the week. If contact is made with Murcia, then Murty hopes to at least be the recipient of a ‘best of luck’ wish.
‘Dad’s a Celtic fan,’ said Murty. ‘All of my father’s family are Celtic fans. And they reiterated that to me earlier this year when I met up with them and I got four hours of absolute dog’s abuse. They said: “What are you doing?” and I said: “This is what I’m doing”. And I sat back and accepted their backlash.
‘The thing is that my old man is a great believer in self-determination. He doesn’t believe in telling you what you should believe in. We have endless debates on all sorts of subjects; about religion, about sport. Most definitely about football because he has got his way and I have got mine.
‘I’m really thankful that he’s broadminded enough to give me a chance to go and be my own person. He better want me to win!
‘It’s going to take place whether I’m in charge or not. So, if I’m in charge and I speak to my old man, then he’ll give me some abuse. But I’ve got no doubt that deep down inside he will want me to do really, really well.
‘So, with the family coming from Glasgow, I was brought up understanding the history of the game, knowing what it’s about and what the occasion means. But standing on the sidelines will be very, very new.
‘I was at Celtic Park, unfortunately sitting in the stand, when Scotland played Faroe Islands many years ago.
‘I’ve been there a couple of times with teams for pre-season games, so I know the stadium. But I’ve no doubt this will be like nothing I’ve seen before.’