Ian Durrant
is nearing the end of his first full season in coaching since hanging up
his boots last year and has played a key role alongside Jim Jefferies
and Billy Brown in taking Kilmarnock to the brink of Europe.
"I'm still learning but who knows, maybe in
two or three years I'll be ready for management.
"I've always seen myself as a winner and
that was a mentality I learned from Walter.
"I've never lost that so I can see myself
turning into a Walter Smith - although I'll never be as grumpy!
"It's like everything else, if you can take
what you've learned to another club and they appreciate it then you're
quids in.
"When
Bobby and his backroom staff left I was one of only a few
experienced guys still here.
"So for two weeks until the gaffer came we
had the run of the club and I enjoyed my part in that.
"It just spiralled from there. I never
envisaged coaching but things were
sprung
on me. I was thinking of other avenues, like going into business with my
wife.
"I wasn't good enough for TV work like
Coisty but I'd have
found other means of employment.
"I'm still serving my coaching
apprenticeship but if a job came up and I thought I was ready then I'd
have no hesitations going for it.
"I would even go down the divisions if I had
to because you can't have your pick of clubs.
"But if I thought a certain team was right
for me and I could improve them, even if it was lower down the leagues,
I'd go for it.
"Davie Robertson and Alex Cleland played
with me at Ibrox and I'm sure they learned a lot from Walter. We all
have good pedigrees with Rangers and other clubs.
"Coaching is hard. It's not even second best
to playing. You can only do your best with what you've got and to be
fair, the boys we have at Rugby Park seem to appreciate us.
"And I have a good relationship with the
gaffer. I only knew him and Billy through playing against their teams
but in management terms I didn't know them at all.
"They take great pleasure from telling me
that in my last game for Rangers they beat us in the Scottish Cup Final
with Hearts.
"But I keep saying if we want to sit down
and talk about my 12 cup finals we'd be there all day!
"At the start I only asked for a year
because I wanted to see if I'd like coaching and if we could all work
well together.
"But it has turned out great as far as I'm
concerned and hopefully something can be sorted.
"At the moment the club is sorting out
contracts for the players and then I can sit down with the manager and
talk about the future.
"There's financial chaos everywhere, not
just in football, so what happens will happen.
"If Killie turn round and tell me there's no
money to keep me then I'll just have to get on with it somewhere else."
