IAN DURRANT returned to Rangers yesterday
and admitted he feared he'd never get the chance to serve his first
footballing love again.
The ex-Scotland midfielder severed a
seven--year connection with Kilmarnock to join Alex McLeish's backroom
team at Murray Park.
Durrant said:....'It is a wrench for me to leave
Kilmarnock after seven years there but it was too good an opportunity
for me to knock back.
'Everybody there - the staff and the fans -
treated me really well in my time and it is difficult to walk away. But
who knows what could happen in the future? I might be able to come back
one day, even as manager.
'I leave on good terms and that matters to
me. I feel I had my most consistent run as a player since the Rangers
Champions League adventure in 1992-93. I had over 100 games for Killie and
they gave me a home after Rangers.
'But I'm excited about the move and I can't
wait to get started. I'll be working with the youths with John Brown and
trying to help bring players on.
'I have been to Murray Park a few times and
been gobsmacked by the place.
'Now I get the chance to go back there and
it will be my workplace - it's Rangers and I think everyone knows what
that means to me.'
'The night of my testimonial against
Sheffield Wednesday all those years ago I thought that was it. You want
to stay in football but you fear the chance to be a Rangers employee
again has gone.
'Whatever happens now I will be eternally
grateful to Alex McLeish for opening the door to me again.
'I have known Bomber for so long and now we
will be together again and looking to help Alex, Andy Watson and Jan
Wouters get the best out of the top team.
'I'm there to get players through. We did it
at Killie with Alan Robertson
(right) and myself and I want to do it at Rangers.
'The dream is to discover one as good as
Barry Ferguson. Scratch that - the dream is to get one half as good.
'If I could do that I'd walk out of Ibrox
with my head held high.'
'Look at us - me and
McCoist.
He's a Scotland coach looking down on the poor wee boy who has only
managed to get a new post at a wee SPL club.
'Even Mo is a coach in America now - - where
will it end?'
