Enhanced Rangers role for Graeme Murty as Lovenkrands returns

Graeme Murty has been handed an enhanced role at Rangers, and the Ibrox club have also added former players Peter Lovenkrands, Stephen Wright and Andy Little to their coaching staff.
Graeme Murty had a spell this season as Rangers' caretaker manager. Picture: Michael GillenGraeme Murty had a spell this season as Rangers' caretaker manager. Picture: Michael Gillen
Graeme Murty had a spell this season as Rangers' caretaker manager. Picture: Michael Gillen

Murty, who is already in charge of the club’s development squad, has now also been appointed head of academy coaching.

The former Scotland international had a short spell as caretaker manager earlier this season between the departure of Mark Warburton and the arrival of Pedro Caixinha.

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He memorably guided Rangers to a 1-1 away draw with Celtic in his final game in charge.

Of his new enhanced role, Murty told the Rangers website: “We are changing the structure slightly. What we want to achieve and what we have always tried to strive for is having the best coaching programme in the country, working with the best players and run by the best coaches in the country, and I am really excited that I am going to be a part of that, to mould it and to hopefully move it forward.

“I don’t think you make it – I think you evolve it. I think it’s going to be a fairly organic process where we look at coaches and see what they need. We have to evolve this Rangers coaching culture and how we want a Rangers coach to look and behave on the sidelines – not just in training but also in matches so if someone wants to come and watch us, they will see a consistent theme and thread throughout all of the teams and all of the Academy.

“Not only in the way that we play, but in the player characteristics and also in the manner that our coaches approach things. This is a very, very big club and we should act that way.”

The new appointments see Wright become the club’s head of intermediate academy and school coach, leaving his role as academy director at Fife Elite.

Lovenkrands will return to the club in a part-time capacity to work with a team in the intermediate phase, while Little will re-join the club to work with the children’s academy, working on a part-time basis with the 8s, 9s and 10s age groups.

Brian Gilmour also comes back to the academy he passed through as a youngster to start in a part-time coaching role with the intermediate academy.