WALTER SMITH spoke, Graeme Murty listened. Now, the interim Ibrox boss must put the words of wisdom from a Rangers legend to good use.

The 69-year-old is still a regular visitor to Auchenhowie these days. It is the talents of his grandchildren, rather than those of first team players, that he sees honed when he returns to his old stomping ground, though.

There is no chance of Smith stepping into the dugout for a third time, but he can still have an influence on the fortunes of his former club.

Murty will take charge of his ninth match as interim boss when St Johnstone make the trip to Ibrox this afternoon and a fifth successive win is in his sights.

His second spell on the touchline has been a steep learning curve but influences both inside and outside of the club have helped ease the way.

“I haven’t at the moment,” Murty said when asked if he had thought about bringing in another coach.

“The workload has gone up because of the games. I haven’t actually considered bringing in another assistant, primarily because I didn’t actually think I would be doing the job right now.

“It is possibly something to consider moving forward. At the moment, what we are doing is supporting one another really well.

“I get support from Craig (Mulholland) and David (McCallum), who was my assistant during my first spell, and I get very good sounding boards to vent and rant at and very good advice from other people.

“I got some brilliant advice in the week from Walter Smith, who is always on tap and was sat in the office holding court because his grandsons were in playing in our Community.

“I spent an hour just listening to the maestro talk about football, talk about Rangers, and it is an absolute lesson in itself just listening to the man talk.

“That, for me, is as good as having someone else to take the workload away.

“Just having that time away from the madness to go and talk about football in general is as good as having someone take the workload because the guys in the office are doing a great deal anyway.”

The conversations between Murty and Smith will remain private but Rangers could reap the rewards of the messages and insight in the coming weeks and months.

Only time will tell who will follow in the footsteps of the Light Blues legend and take their place on a managerial list that remains illustrious despite the recent failures of those to hold the position.

For now, it is Murty that carries that burden and the Under-20s boss will gratefully receive all the help that Smith can offer.

“He is in every other week for the Football in the Community,” Murty said. “He just pops in. He can walk around and do whatever he likes!

“If you don’t mind, those questions will remain between myself and Walter.

“But from my first spell in charge of the 20s he has been in the office. As soon as I came in, he was in the office.

“He is a fixture around the place so you can go and talk to him and he is very forthcoming. He is not stinting in his advice and that is a measure of the man.

“He is so open and honest with you that you could probably ask him anything you wanted and he would give you a straight answer.”

Murty is still fairly new to life at Ibrox but he has first hand experience of working with Smith from his playing days.

His international stint may have been fleeting but the former defender was part of the Scotland squad that won the Kirin Cup in 2006.

The 43-year-old will hope he has a more prolonged career in the dugout. He is learning on the job, and learning all the time.

“Whenever you work alongside or in close proximity to a high-level operator, it is incumbent on you to go there with the open-mindedness and grateful nature to absorb as much as you can,” Murty said.

“That is what I tried to do throughout my career as a player and a coach, to absorb as many lessons as I can from those people at the top of their game and try and incorporate bits.

“You can’t incorporate all, I can’t be Walter Smith, I am not trying to be Walter Smith.

“But if there is one thing you take from him to enhance your own practice then you have to do it.

“You have to go and look outside yourself to those great operators and see what you can take.”

The defeats to Hamilton and Dundee are the black marks on Murty’s CV since he replaced Pedro Caixinha but significant boxes have been ticked in recent weeks as Rangers have won their last four league outings.

The latest, a 2-1 victory over Hibernian, came against all odds. For some supporters, the hard-fought, resilient performance reminded them of the Smith era as Rangers dug deep to earn all three points at Easter Road.

“That is heady praise for the players because when you look at what that man achieved in his times here, they can only dream of living up to those standards,” Murty said.

“If people are drawing parallels, I think it is premature, it is slightly too much praise than I am happy giving them.

“But if there are certain attributes or aspects of that then I think the players can take that on board and move forward and realise it is not always about pretty football.”