ALLY McCOIST has revealed he wants a return to management in the near future and asked his critics not to judge him on his brutal experience at Rangers.

McCoist has spoken to a number of clubs in England about getting back into the game but at the moment is concentrating on media work and his family commitments. However, despite everything he went through at Ibrox it has not put him off a life in football if the right offer materialised.

The Rangers all-time top goalscorer has kept mostly out of the spotlight since he and the club parted ways. In recent months, however, has crept back into public life and now hopes to be given an opportunity to prove he can cut it as a manager.

“I want to get back into coaching and managing," said McCoist. "I had a couple of interviews with English Championship clubs last year. I thought I had one of them but it wasn’t to be so I think the time’s right to get back in. I have missed it.

"I have enjoyed being away from the madness, of course, but I’m looking forward to getting back in. I probably did need time out in terms of my own sanity and health.

“I’m pretty philosophical when I look back. It was the dream job at probably the wrong time. The club was going through the worst period in its history and it was probably the wrong time. It wasn’t the wrong time because it was my fault or anything like that.”

Many Rangers supporters turned on McCoist, one of the club's favourite sons, during the final few months of his time as Rangers manager, a period when the team dropped points and lost games to part-time clubs.

The 53-year-old does believe it would been unfair for anyone to come to any firm conclusions about him on that half season, when Rangers failed to win promotion from the Championship, and indeed what came before given what was happening in the boardroom.

And when asked if he was yet to be judged solely on ability as football manager, McCoist said: “I think most intelligent people would say that’s a fair comment. Obviously, you are going to get judged. That’s what happens.

“But I think the circumstances the club was going through at the time would certainly indicate it was very different.

“It wasn’t ideal and it wasn’t a level playing field, for even any other Rangers manager to be judged like that.

"But that’s life. That’s just the way it was and I accept it. It’s not even so much about being judged. I just want to get another opportunity to go and coach and manage.”

There will be some bemused by McCoist’s determination to test himself in a job that did affect him so badly.

“I just miss the people and I miss the football,” said McCoist. “It’s that simple. I miss the day to day more than anything else, to tell you the truth. The training and being about the place.

“I know 18 months is a long time to be out of football. I read an article with Ian McCall who was saying he was out for three and a half years.

"That’s a long time, but he has had a fantastic season with Ayr, beating Stranraer in the play-offs.

"I understand 18 months is a long time. But I think people know me well enough. If I get back in, great. That is the ideal scenario. But if I don’t then I will get on with my life. There is plenty going on."

Ally McCoist was talking at a Ladbrokes Euro 2016 event