Ian Durrant - Old Rangers regime humiliated me...

[ian1964 10,724]

...and didn't even have balls to demote me themselves.

 

GERS stalwart looks back on a horrible time for him at Ibrox and admits it's like being at a different club nowadays.

 

IAN DURRANT once lost almost three years of a stellar career to a horrible injury.

 

But nothing hurt this Rangers legend more than the blow inflicted by those who were running the club he loves last season.

 

Durrant was publicly demoted and humiliated by the previous Ibrox regime, which did not have the bottle to look him in the eye and tell him he was being sacked as first-team coach.

 

Instead, the chief executive at the time, Derek Llambias, forced interim manager Kenny McDowall to carry out the dirty work in a phone call that Durrant admits was a hammer blow at the time but has now turned into a blessing.

 

Durrant has survived, you see. Then again, he has always been made of stern stuff. He had to be to pick up the pieces of his career that could have been over when he sustained that shocking knee injury at Pittodrie in 1988.

 

He took his medicine, went back to developing Rangers kids – the kind who nurture the same hopes and dreams as he did almost 30 years ago and when Mark Warburton’s revolution rolled into town in the summer, he was asked to stay on.

 

Yesterday he was promoting the Rangers Lotto where all money raised helps fund the development of those kids, and he did so with a smile on his face. But behind the grin, there is always the pain of those dark days just a few months ago.

 

He said: “I was disappointed at the time by the manner of how it happened.

 

“For what I’d given the club, I’d have thought they could have taken five minutes to come and tell me I was being demoted, rather than getting a phone call telling me I was going to be doing this.

 

“You could say respect. The way it was done – Kenny was told by certain board members that I was to be demoted and he phoned me.

 

“Someone from the club should have told me face to face. If they were going to do it the Rangers way it wouldn’t have taken much. That was the boot in the balls but you get on with it don’t you?”

 

“But I was still in a job and I couldn’t walk about with my head down. This is another project with the kids and if they’d seen me moping about it wouldn’t help them. So I came in and got on with it.

 

“I love it. I did it at Kilmarnock and I did it here when I first came back. It gave me a wee jolt and working with them gave me a boost when I needed it because it was hard.”

 

Like everyone else at Murray Park, Durrant now has a bounce in his step and added: “It's like night and day. You have people who care about the football club.

 

“You see the things that are happening. There’s a new indoor facility, through the Rangers Lotto, there’s extra groundstaff to maintain pitches better – everything.

 

“John Gilligan, Paul Murray and Mr King have come in and everything they’ve promised they are producing. The team is playing really well and it’s filtering down through everyone.

 

“Everyone comes in bright and breezy every day rather than looking over their shoulder every couple of minutes.”

 

Ian Black back in the game as he signs a two-year deal with English League One side Shrewbury Town

 

Durrant’s job is to place players on the pathway to the first team and he is confident Warburton will give his boys the chance to shine.

 

He said: “The manager could have wanted his own staff but at the first meeting with him and Davie Weir they asked me what I wanted to do and I told them I was enjoying working with the Under-20s.

 

“They just told me that was my job.

 

“He’s the captain of the ship now and I stay out his way as much as I can. But if he needs help, I’m there to do that.

 

“At the Raith Rovers game the other week, of the 18 players in the squad there were eight graduates from the Academy. They will get the chance and when they get it they have to catch the manager’s eye.

 

“There will be injuries and suspensions. The manager runs a tight ship in terms of squad size so there will be chances. When they get it they’ve got to take it.

 

“The manager knows the market down south and he’s brought in quality. But we tell the boys they have to match that quality or be better.

 

“I tell them when they go to train with the first team that they can’t be standing around there – they have to catch the manager’s eye.

 

“If you want to be a first-team player, go and be a first-team player. If you want to be an Under-20 player or drift around the lower leagues, you’ll do that and there will be another batch coming in.”

 

They’ve all got ability, so it comes down to attitude, he insists. “You have to dig in, muck in and take what is given,” he said, preaching what he has clearly practised during those dark days which are now behind him.

 

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/old-rangers-regime-humiliated-didnt-6442364

[Bruno55 0]

I think wee durranty done well getting demoted or he would have been out the door with all the rest that went. He claims Allys his best pal but has yet to hear from him? Aye right Ian, the wee man is much to blame as ally and Kenny he watched all those horendous performances along with us, why didn't he tell ally?

[gisabeer 409]

Barry ferguson was fighting mccoists corner at the weekend withe the usual pile of shite that mccoist did a good job under difficult circumstances. Theres a pattern forming here paving the way for the cretin to return.

 

They really do believe their own hype.

[pete 2,499]

Barry ferguson was fighting mccoists corner at the weekend withe the usual pile of shite that mccoist did a good job under difficult circumstances. Theres a pattern forming here paving the way for the cretin to return.

 

They really do believe their own hype.

Well Barry is certainly following in Ally's footsteps by signing overaged Journeymen.