Graeme Murty has been sacked as Rangers manager after another Old Firm humiliating 5-0 defeat by Scottish champions Celtic on Sunday.
The 43-year-old had been given the job until the end of season in December after a spell in interim charge following the sacking of Pedro Caixinha.
Over the past couple of weeks, there has been talk about new Rangers bosses with Steven Gerrard’s name, and he is now the new favourite to take Murty’s place.
But after everything Murty has done for the Gers over the last 5 months, are Rangers wrong to relieve him of his duties?
When Murty was given the job as Rangers manager last year, it was under some of the worst and, far from normal, circumstances. Caixinha left the Gers in turmoil after seven disastrous months in charge and Murty had the impossible task of fixing what was left.
He got straight to work alongside director of football Mark Allen and wasted no time overhauling the squad during the winter transfer window. After Caixinha’s expensive failures of foreign impacts that simply did not work or fit well together on the pitch like Eduardo Herrera and Fabio Cardoso, Murty gave the club a much more British feel by bringing in players closer to home.
One of his key signings has been ex-Hibernian hitman Jason Cummings who has scored six times in 16 appearances. As well as boyhood fan Jamie Murphy who has notched up five goals and five assists.
Not to mention Josh Windass seemed to step up his game after Murty’s arrival, and top goalscorer Alfredo Morelos has since been linked with moves to China and South America. Russell Martin also brought some experience at the back after Bruno Alves was out on injury and Sean Goss brought some creativity to Rangers’ midfield.
Over the past few weeks, Murty has been questioned and under the speculation of most people across the board – from fans, form the press, from the Rangers board, and from players themselves. But few could have accomplished what he has in their first managerial appointment under the circumstances he inherited.
With no budget, a squad that wasn’t his, massive problems in the changing room, desperate fans and the club in turmoil off the pitch, Murty had a hard task ahead of him from day one.
Since the start of the 2017/18 season, Rangers have played 27 games under Murty with 17 of them wins, 8 defeats and only 2 draws. With only a few games left to go of the season, he has a win percentage of 67%.
For some context, when comparing this to his predecessor, Caixinha had a win percentage of only 54%.
When Murty came in he had one key job to do: improve the club, move forward, and close the gap. Rangers were fourth on the table and Murty brought them up to second, where they have been on-and-off throughout the season competing with Aberdeen.
The fact that he’s brought them so far is proof of his abilities. To go from fourth to second with a squad of players that weren’t his and having to change the squad’s style of football to the way that he wanted is great progress and realistically there isn’t much else he could have done.
The real problem stems from the fact that fans demand that Rangers are not bested by anyone – especially not by rivals Celtic.
What fans really wanted was a manager that was going to swoop in and take them to the top of the table, close the gap entirely on Celtic, stop them from getting another trophy and stop them from achieving a double treble for the first time in Scottish football history.
Celtic are miles ahead of every other club in Scottish football, and have only tasted defeat three times in two seasons. It is way too ambitious for anyone to expect Rangers – in their current state – to close the gap and stop Celtic from succeeding.
Rangers are way off the mark in being any real challenge for the Hoops. But that is not a fault of Murty. He has done the best he could have in the circumstances and there was never any way he was going to create a team that could overthrow the Scottish champions in such a small space of time.
Gers fans were always going to be disappointed if that was what they hoped for and expected.
Getting rid of Murty seems to stem mostly from this and not what he has done for the club. If Rangers keep throwing away potentially good managers who need time to build and develop, then they’re not going to find their ‘perfect fit’ anytime soon, and will only look worse if they keep taking big gambles that might not pay off.
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