ANOTHER week on, and still we await to see who the next permanent manager of Rangers will be. But a time for panic? Not a bit of it.

I think Rangers have done the right thing in taking their time over this appointment. 

A number of the people I speak to on the radio want Derek McInnes and want him now.

I don’t think there is any question he would be the popular choice among Gers fans.

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However, I don’t this process will have done Rangers and harm whatsoever. 

The main reason they’ve been able to work at their own pace is because they have a safe pair of hands managing the team presently, and that is Graeme Murty.

Remember all the pressure on Pedro Caixinha winning three games in a row?

Well, the international break has delayed it, but after beating Hearts and Partick Thistle comfortably, tomorrow Murty can achieve just that should Rangers beat Hamilton Accies. Not a huge achievement, and not something Rangers as a club should have toiled for so long to achieve.

But, it would still be a marker put down by Murty, that he knows what he is doing and I like how he’s done it; Kenny Miller restored, Bruno Alves left on the bench because the team was winning without him. Another marker from Murty. 

And while he’s still winning, there is no panic. But if he keeps winning, at what stage does he go from a possible to a probable? 

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Whereas before he said he’d be happy going back to his day job, working with the kids and youths at Ibrox, the other week he said that he did have ambitions. Could they be fulfilled, if he keeps Rangers progressing result-wise. Somehow I don’t think so, but that doesn’t mean to say he should be totally overlooked.

The delay in not having a new man to come in is frustrating Rangers fans. You cannot speak to one without the question eventually coming up. And, almost always, the name McInnes comes up.

With no announcement during the international window, we are now facing a couple of games against Aberdeen in quick succession. You can’t see Aberdeen allowing their manager to leave before those. So the waiting game – and the speculation game – goes on.

But as I said, this delay between seeing off Caixinha and bringing the next man onboard, may pay dividends in the long run. I think Rangers have been let down by what the last few managers have achieved – or not achieved – in rushing to make an appointment.

A few weeks ago, I said in this column that the Rangers board should wait and see what kind of CVs are delivered to them. Rangers, compared to 10, 20 or 30 years ago, have been a shadow of what they achieved then, on and off the pitch.

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But they are no less a club, and the manager’s job is just as big now as it has ever been. So there will be people out there who fancy the job. I don’t think it is any surprise that names like Steve McClaren, Gus Poyet and Alan Pardew have all been linked with the position, because it still carries a lot of kudos and prestige, regardless of what some think.

As a result, there may be names who no-one expected to be linked to Rangers, showing an interest. And it would be wholly wrong for Rangers to ignore some of those applications simply because they have a preferred option. There could be an alternative name.

Whatever the process of employing the new manager, it is going to come under real scrutiny from the fans, who are still aghast that Pedro Caixinha was employed after Mark Warburton.

Right now, I’d imagine Mark Allen, the director of football at Ibrox, will be doing the due diligence on several names and will at some point, very soon, present three or four names for the board to consider, and, hopefully interview, to see what is on offer, rather than just having the coronation they appeared to have the last time.

Mark Allen is the man who is being paid to oversee all of the football operations, and has to be given his place on this one, to come up with suitable candidates, not just one name for rubber-stamping. If Allen isn’t given that scope and remit,  what is the point of having him there in the first place.

We keep hearing Rangers cannot make another mistake like they did with Caixinha. So true. It’s an episode that has cost the Ibrox club time and money – quite possibly money another man would have used more wisely.  Whoever emerges, has to be the real deal.