Keith Jackson reveals the scenario that sees Graeme Murty back in charge at Ibrox

Keith Jackson has laid out the scenario that will see Graeme Murty in charge of first team training at Murray Park on Monday.

Thursday’s announcement that Mister Gerrard had bolted to Aston Villa contained no mention of a caretaker as the company searches for a successor to the Liverpool legend.

Murty was hands-on as soon as Mark Warburton and Pedro Caixinha moved on but was notably absent from Thursday’s announcement.

It seems that the next manager will be decided by one of two men. Douglas Park favouring a True Blue like Derek McInnes prepared to do as he is told or someone like Giovanni van Bronckhorst who is preferred by Sporting Director Ross Wilson.

With Gerrard taking five coaches with him to Villa Park some quick decisions will have to be made against the terrifying prospect of Murty fronting things up from Monday morning.

The former Reading full-back arrived with Warburton in 2015. In two stints as a caretaker he will be remembered for chewing on his anorak, a handstand after a missed chance away to Dundee and 5-0 and 4-0 capitulations to Celtic.

Warning Daily Record readers of the doomsday scenario if the hierarchy can’t get a new man through the door, Jackson writes:

They could have a new man tied up and ready to start work at Auchenhowie by Monday morning. The list of candidates is already impressive. Some obvious. Others outstanding. One or two are both at the same time.

But given that the likes of Giovanni van Bronckhorst, McInnes, Rino Gattuso and Frank Lampard are all out of work and at the end of a phone, there seems little reason for any delay. Unless, of course, Wilson’s next move is causing confusion behind the scenes and becomes the subject of lengthy internal debate.

And if that’s the case then the prospect of Murty being rushed back out of the youth team’s dressing room on Monday morning and ushered back towards the serious end of the training ground, could become a reality.

And that really would represent a spine shuddering flashback to a time that most Rangers supporters would prefer to forget.

Let’s not forget, Rangers have a Premier Sports Cup semi final at Hampden in one week’s time. And not a first team coach in sight.

The only man truly qualified to step into the breach, former midfielder Kevin Thomson, left the scene at the start of the season when, frustrated at being left on the fringes of someone else’s little empire, he chose to go it alone in the fourth tier of Scottish football at Kelty Hearts.

That Thomson is already proving such a success at that level suggests he was being seriously underutilised while inside the Rangers academy.

If Rangers don’t have a plan let alone a new man by the start of next week then they could do worse than beg for him to come back to assist in a time of need. Because the thought of Murty holding the fort will not just strike fear into the hearts of the club’s supporters, it will also go down like a lead balloon inside the first team dressing room, where Gerrard’s assembled group will be hoping for a man of similar substance to step into the manager’s void.

Of course, it needn’t come to that. Wilson might already have his ducks in a row. The board might be ready and waiting to press the button on his succession plan. And professionalism may not have left the building after all.

The next few days will go a long way to demonstrating how much has been learned during these last three and half years of Gerrard’s expertise.

Murts has been coaching the u-18 side since Gerrard took over as manager.