STEWART ROBERTSON believes Graeme Murty has been given a once in a lifetime opportunity after being appointed as Rangers manager until the end of the season.

The 43-year-old has been rewarded for his efforts as interim boss and named as Pedro Caixinha’s successor after six wins from nine matches.

Murty has repeatedly played down his chances of taking the job on a full-time basis but Managing Director Robertson is confident he will make the most of his chance to impress.

He said: “He is taking it full on. He is taking it as he gets one kick of the ball and he wants to give it a right good welly.

“He has got a once in a lifetime opportunity to be the manager of Rangers and it says a lot about his character how he is approaching it and his enthusiasm to take things on and get stuck into it.

“He has got a different level of authority with the players now. He is now the manager, he is not the guy who is only holding the fort until the manager comes in and it will be interesting to see if that helps.

“It has to help him, it has to be a positive. He doesn’t see it as a burden. If he thought he was going to see it as a burden, we wouldn’t have appointed him.”

The move for Murty comes just weeks after Derek McInnes knocked back the chance to return to Rangers and opted to remain at Aberdeen.

Now the former Under-20s boss has a chance to remain at the helm in the long-term as the Ibrox board continue to assess their options.

Robertson said: “You’re always looking at who’s in the market place. We wouldn’t be doing our jobs if we weren’t aware of that.

“You can’t always get the guys you might want - as you’ve seen in this situation – but we’re always compiling information on potential managers and that will be ongoing.

“Graeme, though, is the man in possession and if he performs well then he’ll give us an easy decision in the summer.”

Supporters have become increasingly frustrated at the length of time it has taken to replace Caixinha after he was sacked in October.

But Robertson has defended the process as the Gers hierarchy finally made an appointment on Friday afternoon.

He said: “I can see why that frustration is there but someone once told me that recruitment is an art, not a science and it doesn’t always go in a straight line.

“People always say that it’s easy to do this or do that but we’ve ended up where we are, what’s gone is gone and we can’t change what’s happened.

“It’s all about looking ahead now and supporting Graeme to take the club forward.”