When he made a hasty exit from Celtic Park along with his crestfallen Hearts players six weeks ago, Derek McInnes felt sick to the pit of his stomach.
The remarkable Premiership title bid he brilliantly masterminded had been crushed in the most dramatic and agonising circumstances imaginable as Celtic’s late show prevented Hearts from becoming Scottish champions for the first time since 1960.
As McInnes dusted himself down, began to take stock and headed off on holiday, his thoughts initially began to focus on how he would engineer a response from the Tynecastle club.
Instead, he found himself walking up the marble staircase at Ibrox yesterday and into the famous wood-panelled office which has been the domain of Rangers managers for more than a century.
McInnes, who previously turned down the role when it was offered to him in 2017, admits there was a degree of angst on his part at having to leave Hearts after a campaign which saw him sweep the board of Manager of the Year awards.
Yet the 54-year-old also made it clear that, this time around, the offer to take charge of the club he both supported and then played for was one he simply couldn’t reject.
Derek McInnes said ‘the time was right’ to move to Ibrox after previously turning the job down
‘It’s a very special moment for myself and my family and a lot of people I can think of on a day like this,’ said McInnes. ‘Having known the club for a long time, supported the club, I’m well aware of the responsibility that being manager brings. I’m excited to get going. I feel as though it’s the right time for me. I feel ready for it. I feel as if I belong here and I’m ready to get going with it.
‘I feel as though I was ready for it back then (in 2017), but it was just a different set of circumstances. There was a lot going on at that time. I was leaving a really secure club in Aberdeen and I had a really enjoyable period at Aberdeen. At that time, I wanted to be the Rangers manager as well.
‘But it was a different ownership, a different set of circumstances, a different feeling to be honest as soon as we got into talks and negotiations. Today is about becoming the Rangers manager rather than looking back. I’m just delighted I’ve been given the opportunity to be asked again.
‘It’s not an easy decision. I loved my time at Hearts. Hearts is a brilliant club. My time there was short but it was brilliant. I would have loved to have managed them longer, to be honest.
‘We had a special season, there’s no two ways about it. It’s tough how it all played out, but I’m proud of the work that we all did — my staff, the players together. We did some great things there.
‘It was a sobering feeling leaving Celtic Park at the end of the season and probably the lowest point in my career because I had a firm belief that we were going to win the league for a long period. So, all these things wrestle with you but I think Rangers give me the best chance to win titles and go forward.’
McInnes is welcomed to Ibrox by Rangers CEO Jim Gillespie
It is a move which seemed unlikely in the immediate aftermath of last season which saw Rangers initially offer their full backing to Danny Rohl, despite the collapse of their own title challenge under the German in the closing weeks of the campaign.
Yet as soon as RB Salzburg’s interest in recruiting Rohl became clear, Rangers chief executive Jim Gillespie revealed they were only too happy to accelerate the process which saw him replaced by McInnes.
‘We gave Danny our backing in May but things evolve over time,’ said Gillespie. ‘The decision for Danny to move on was our decision, Rangers Football Club’s decision. Danny was contracted to Rangers and had no buyout, so ultimately we could have told Salzburg he wasn’t for sale.
‘But we decided that we wanted to bring Derek in, and that was the motivation to let Danny go and bring Derek in because he was someone that we had already highlighted as a man to bring success to Rangers.’
Pointedly, McInnes will also revert to the formal title of ‘manager’, as opposed to the ‘head coach’ moniker applied to his recent predecessors.
‘Ultimately, we gave a nod to the history of this football club,’ added Gillespie. ‘It was important to Derek and important to us that we did that, and that’s why he’s the Rangers manager.
‘He brings standards, he brings leadership, and he brings intangibles. When you’re not just the Rangers manager but part of Rangers at an executive level, you have to understand and have that character. So that’s why we think Derek was the only candidate for the role.’
McInnes has signed a three-year contract and is determined to lift the title at the first attempt
McInnes, who has been assured he will have the final say on all transfer dealings at the club, is ready to embrace the challenge of restoring Rangers to a position of domestic pre-eminence in Scottish football.
‘The supporters need something to believe in, they need something real,’ he said. ‘A lot of managers have sat in this position on their first day and said they were going to do this and going to do that. It’s easy to say things, but it’s a lot harder to get it done.
‘I come here with the confidence that with the resources we’ve got, with the infrastructure in place, and the support we’ve got from people above us, that this should be a winning Rangers team and this should be a club that should be winning,’ he said.
‘We just want to try and deliver a team that meets the demands here. I feel as though the Rangers fans, having won one title in 15 years, have suffered for a long time. It’s up to us to try now and play a key role in driving the standards and getting a winning Rangers team on the pitch more often than not.
‘I’ve got an idea of what my Rangers team needs to look like, and hopefully, it’s something similar to what the Rangers fans want as well.
‘Rangers give me the best chance to win, and that’s important. I know what I can bring to Rangers, but equally, I know what Rangers can give to me.’
