Rangers graced by footballing royalty as Hearts visitor turns up again to 'chew the fat'

Derek McInnes may have missed the presence of 13 first-team Rangers players - but having football royalty at the club’s training centre was certainly a bonus.

In the third week of a long international break, Rangers manager McInnes was visited by Sir Alex Ferguson, who is making a habit of dropping in on the 55-year-old.

Ferguson spent time with McInnes last season while he was masterminding Hearts’ enthralling title charge and was often on hand to offer advice via message or phone. The Manchester United legend - now 83 - was a big fan of McInnes’ work at Tynecastle.

Rangers can go top of the Premiership if they beat Kilmarnock on Saturday. | SNS Group

He will likely approve of the upturn in fortunes McInnes sparked during September. A six-game winning run landed him manager of the month and changed the narrative around Ibrox. Win on Saturday at home to Kilmarnock and Rangers will be top of the league, at least for 24 hours.

A former Rangers player, Ferguson is always welcome around the club. McInnes enjoyed “chewing the fat” with him and using one of the game’s most decorated managers as a sounding board.

“He messaged on Monday to see if he could come up and see us on Tuesday and he was up in Glasgow dealing with one or two things and seeing his brother,” said McInnes. “He came in on Tuesday for lunch and spent a bit of time with the staff and myself chewing the fat as he does and it was great to see him.

“He's in good health, obviously he's got a wee bit of difficulty with he's walking at the minute, but he's determined. He's two months away, he says, from being right as rain again. He certainly looked in decent spirits.”

Ferguson has always been on hand to help younger managers, but it is clear he has forged a bond with McInnes. “I think he's somebody that's always been really supportive,” he said. “I'm sure he is for a lot of managers, but myself, he's been really kind with that. I think any time you spend with him, either on the phone or in person, you've got to take that opportunity. I'm grateful for that.

“He was, particularly last season, a big supporter of what we're doing at Hearts. He was a regular visitor, so it's nice that we managed to catch up. I've had a couple of conversations since I've been at the club in recent months, but to see him in person was good, particularly after his health scare.”

We spoke long and hard about that

When Rangers came calling in June on the back of McInnes’ excellent work at Tynecastle, Ferguson was someone he turned to. “I had the discussion with him in the summer,” said McInnes. “He thought he enjoyed what we were doing at Hearts. I think he genuinely felt that a club out with the Old Firm could win the league. And obviously last season he was a regular visitor.

“But I think he obviously understood when the opportunity to come here was there for me. We spoke long and hard about that as well. I think he just wants good things to happen for you. He has been very supportive of myself and he is somebody that I enjoy the conversations I have with him. There's always something you come away with that he's not said previously.

“He spoke about his own difficult starts at Man United. He said it's how you finish a season, not how you start this campaign. Sometimes it can take time. As we know in modern football, sometimes you don't always get the time. He thought we were really strong in the performance against Celtic Park in particular.”

That victory in the Old Firm derby feels like a lifetime ago, but it has given Rangers a strong platform to build from. McInnes is urging Rangers to keep their performance levels high and add more goals to their game.

“For me, the biggest indicator of results is performance,” said McInnes. “We need to just concentrate on maintaining and improving on performances. I think the season's still early on, but I think we've had a wee flavour of what potentially we could become as a team, certainly showing a bit more verve at the top end of the pitch.

“But the biggest part for me at the minute, and what needed to be changed, was getting clean sheets and having that strong resolve. I think we're only one goal in the six games. Because, doing this job a long time, the biggest drain of confidence is losing cheap goals. It makes everything so much more difficult, particularly at the start of the season when they're firing all cylinders at the top end of the pitch.

“Obviously, getting that side of it as a team has been strong. Keeping the back door shut, keeping the opportunities to a minimum is very important.

“I think it would have been tough to get into this length of break on the back of bad results. Because sometimes you can overthink it and it's your job when you don't win games as a manager and a staff to work out why we're not winning games. So it's nice to know that we've got into this break on good form.

“But we also need to ask ourselves why we won these games, what we're doing right. We try to maintain levels. We still need to get improvements. There's been a couple of games with 1-0 victories and it's still been a bit too tight for my liking. We need to try and be more effective in the top end of the pitch.

“I think if we keep producing the same willingness, the same work rate, the same consistency, our out of possession work and get more and more confident with what we're doing with the ball then I think the teams has given every day a wee bit of encouragement. We're not just kicking back and giving ourselves a pat on the back and enjoying the last wee bit. I think we've got to be honest and say there's still areas where we can improve.”

Sir Alex would no doubt approve of such thinking.