THERE is one word that is at the heart of the situation between Graeme Murty and Lee Wallace and Kenny Miller and that is ‘respect’.

The manager must always have the recognition of the players and if Wallace and Miller have crossed a line with what they said to him at Hampden then they have shown him a complete lack of respect.

None of us would have dared to do that to Jock Wallace because he would have had you up against the wall and you would have got it.

Read more: Rangers pair still in dark over futures as circumstances of bust-up emerge

Nobody that worked under Graeme Souness or Walter Smith would have dared to do that either. It is as simple as that.

If you want to have words with the manager, you do it away from the rest of the squad. You don’t do it in front of every player after a game.

If you do, what is to stop other players saying ‘well, I am not happy about this or that and if they are getting away with it then so will I’? You would get anarchy in the dressing room.

Rangers feel the issue is serious enough to suspend the players and launch an investigation and it looks like the end for Lee and Kenny at Ibrox.

I am sure both lads would have been embarrassed sitting in the stand and watching the way we went down to Celtic. There is nothing they could do about it and that frustration has come out.

Listen, I would be worried if they didn’t care. They do care and that is why they have said whatever they have said.

Read more: Derek Johnstone: Rangers owe the Ibrox crowd big time against Hearts after Old Firm embarrassment​

But you can’t do it like that and have a go at the manager in front of their team-mates. You have to respect your boss at all times.

Graeme was asked to step up and be manager and it was a brave decision to say yes.

Whether it was the right thing to do, only he knows. But he doesn’t deserve that from experienced players.

He has made mistakes but they are his mistakes. He picks the players, he picks the tactics and he pays the price when results don’t come.

Graeme is a young manager but that doesn’t mean he is beyond criticism. There is line that you can’t cross, though.

If Lee and Kenny had come into the dressing room and tore into the players I would have said ‘brilliant’. That is what is needed on the park, never mind of it.

Read more: Alastair Johnston: Rangers are 'ahead of the curve' on the road to recovery​

But if you are giving that to the manager in front of the players, you have crossed a line. If that is the case, I think the club have taken the right action.

I know emotions were running high. After a game is a horrible time for a player because you are angry and you want to get your frustrations out.

But they should have waited until the following day to have words with the manager. Go and chap his door at Auchenhowie and discuss it and explain your position.

That would have been fine. It is out of order to have a go at the manager in front of the rest of the players though. You can’t do that.

By all means, let the players have it because they are the ones on the park that haven’t done it.

If you care about the club, which I’m sure Lee and Kenny do, then you are quite entitled to lay into the players.

But once you start on the manager you are taking a liberty. He might be wrong, but you can’t cross that line.

Will they play again? That will be up to the manager and the club but you have to say it looks highly unlikely.

Read more: Rangers pair still in dark over futures as circumstances of bust-up emerge

At any other club, if you had players having a go at the manager, exactly the same thing would have happened.

I have seen a lot of fights in dressing rooms at half-time and after matches but nobody has disrespected the manager.

You can talk to him and say ‘I think this’. Fine. But you have to remember that his word is final, whether you like it or not. If it goes wrong, he gets the blame.

You need to have harmony at a football club and if you have people disrupting that then it needs to be stopped before it spreads too far and wide.

Lee and Kenny may not regret what they said. They are two passionate men and maybe they are thinking ‘well, we have been here for a few years and we know what it is all about’.

If they think the manager got it wrong, that is fine. But there are ways do express that opinion and a shouting match minutes after a game is not the way.