CRAIG MULHOLLAND is confident Graeme Murty will reap the rewards of his stint in the Ibrox spotlight as he looks to help his Rangers kids graduate with distinction from the Light Blue ranks.

The 42-year-old stepped into the first team dugout in the aftermath of Mark Warburton’s departure in February and led the Gers to three wins in five games before bowing out with a draw at Parkhead.

Murty has now been given the title of Head of Academy Coaching as part of an overhaul of the Auchenhowie structure ahead of the new campaign.

Mulholland told SportTimes: “Graeme has been great since he joined the Academy.

“He has brought a real wealth of experience from his playing days and from his time at Southampton and Norwich. So he has a real knowledge base in terms of developing young people.

“In terms of his own development, his time with the first team was excellent and it has allowed him to come back to the Academy thinking ‘right, what is the manager thinking and looking for?’

“David McCallum worked with Graeme at the first team, Colin Stewart stepped up and took the 20s, Billy Kirkwood and Malky Thomson were involved.

“Everyone got moved to slightly different jobs during that period but it was great because it took them out of their comfort zone and pushed them on.

“We are delighted to have the staff back in place and I think we are better now having experienced that.

“If you look at the staff we have, the club are investing in quality people at Academy level. If we are going to produce players, we need the best practitioners.

“I heard one club say they want their staff to be like an Oxford and Cambridge of football.

“We want to achieve the same, although our budgets will be different from some clubs.

“We want to make sure our best staff and working with the players more often. If you look at the appointments we have made to join the existing staff that were here then we are getting towards that.”