THE news that Derek McInnes turned down the chance to be Rangers manager and opted to remain at Aberdeen left me completely shocked.

Everything pointed to Derek being the man to succeed Pedro Caixinha at Ibrox but he clearly feels it wasn’t the right move for him.

It is a huge call for Derek to make and it is a slap in the face to the Rangers board after they took six weeks going through the process and then made a move for him on Tuesday.

Read more: Rangers 'endorse' Derek McInnes' decision to remain as Aberdeen boss​

Derek is the only man that can say why he made the decision that he has. It is a massive, massive call.

If you say no to Rangers, you are unlikely to get asked again. That would surely have been in Derek’s mind.

But he will have his reasons and if he feels that Rangers aren’t right for him then he isn’t the right man for Rangers.

He clearly feels that staying at Aberdeen is the best thing for him but that doesn’t help Rangers, who are now left with no manager and a huge problem.

The board have been left with a red face. Having taken all this time to get to this stage, it is an embarrassment for them that Derek has turned them down.

But, at the end of the day, if he doesn’t want to come and be Rangers manager then that is up to him.

I don’t see him ever getting this chance again. If he wanted to manage the club, this was his time.

Without hearing from him, it is a difficult one to call. The bottom line is that he won’t be the next manager of Rangers Football Club.

I know there were a lot of fans that didn’t want Derek as boss, that was clear. But I think the majority would have taken him and backed him.

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He has given the club a huge slap in the face, though, and until we hear from him we won’t know his full reasons why he has made this decision.

Derek has had plenty of opportunities over the last few weeks to distance himself from the job and to make it clear that he wanted to remain at Aberdeen.

So why didn’t he? Did he just change his mind at the last minute?

He will have known for some time that Rangers could come in for him so he could have made it clear long before last night that he wasn’t interested.

He didn’t take training and he didn’t attend his press conference yesterday. So what has changed for Derek?

For it to get to this stage and then all fall apart is a real shock. I can’t believe that it got this far and then Derek said no.

It is his choice and it was up to him whether he took it or not. He has taken his time and when everyone felt that it was going to go ahead, he has decided that it wasn’t.

It would have been on his mind for a long time that he could be Rangers manager so it will be interesting to hear from him and find out why he has done what he has done.

There is no doubt this is a huge blow to the Rangers board but they have to come up with a plan to move forward now.

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Who else comes into consideration? The first one that comes to mind is Alex McLeish, even if that is just until the end of the season.

I can’t think of anyone else that has previously been mentioned that could come in now because a lot of them – like Sam Allardyce, who I spoke about a while ago – have got jobs. Is there a Plan B?

I think most people felt that the deal was all but done and that he could even be in the dugout for the game with Ross County on Saturday.

Now the fans are asking where the club go from here. Who will be next?

Whoever gets the job now knows that they are at least second choice and that is a major problem for Rangers.

The board put all their eggs in one basket with Derek. Now they have been left with it all over their faces.

I thought with the way that it was going on and on that it would be between Derek and Alex so maybe Big Eck comes back into the running now.

It is a massive test for this board now after the Mark Warburton era and Pedro Caixinha’s seven-month reign at Ibrox.

Read more: Rangers 'endorse' Derek McInnes' decision to remain as Aberdeen boss​

They have gone for Derek and not got him and the fans will quite rightly demand answers here. Why have the club ended up in this situation?

They have had plenty of time to make an appointment and after spending so long going through that process they had to get a deal done.

There will be other names on their list and there is a lot of focus now on Mark Allen. He is in charge of all football matters, so he will have to put another candidate to the board sooner rather than later.

Graeme Murty will have to continue for the foreseeable future now and take charge of the side against County at Ibrox.

But, deep down, he would surely have felt that the game at Pittodrie was going to be his last. It would have been a fitting way for him to bow out and hand over the reins.

It is not a problem that he is going to remain in charge and he will do the job to the best of his abilities.

Having Graeme at the helm gives the board a wee bit of time to regroup but the fact is that Rangers need to have a permanent manager in place.

Could Graeme could take the team through the games in December, which is a really important run, and then hand it over in January? Only time will tell.

Once again, the pressure is on the Rangers board and the fans are right to demand answers at Ibrox.