It is the strangest game in the world

Durrant, for what it is worth, has a strong verdict on the talent. ‘‘Davie Cooper was the best player I played with. Paul Gascoigne was sensational, Brian Laudrup was unbelievable. Davie Cooper had an aura about him. I used to watch him training and some of the things . . . I loved playing with him or watching him,’’ said the Rangers first-team coach.

Durrant, though, would leave most bleeding with the stiletto- style lancing of his murderous comments. They are made all the more painful by being delivered in a quiet, almost innocent style.

What about Chris Sutton, and the former Celtic striker’s comments that was a fragility about Rangers? How does he respond to that? "We just have to go out and win games. Chris was promoting a book, so good luck to him. He’s a Celtic man and that is the way it is. You deal with that in the Old Firm. You cannot react to things like that. The boys go out to play their games, to win games. As long as we are doing that, then I am sure we can keep our lead . . ."

All very reasonable, but then comes the coup de grace. ‘‘I swear to God, I am not trying to put Chris down but if you put the paper with his comments in it in front of some of the players then they would not know who Chris Sutton was,’’ he said.

This phoney war speaks to a backstory behind the Old Firm. Durrant talks up Rangers’ strength of will. Celtic fans mutter about the calamitous collapses of their side. ‘‘It is not a motivation,’’ said Durrant of Sutton’s observations. ‘‘The motivation for us is to go and win four in a row. Simple. It is the gaffer’s first season and we know what the yardstick is: we have won three in a row, we have won numerous trophies as players, but it is our goldfish bowl now. We have to go and do it. We have a squad now that can go and compete with Celtic.’’

To add to Celtic angst, Durrant states of last season’s Clydesdale Bank Premier league title race: ‘‘We thought Celtic were out of sight last year. The way they were playing, it would have to be a helluva team effort to pull it back. We were seven points down at one point. When you see what they had last year and the way they were playing, I didn’t think we were good enough to claw it back,’’ said the coach who played for the club from 1984 to 1998.

His relatively paltry total of 288 games was a result of the severe injury he suffered at the boot of Neil Simpson in 1988. It took Durrant three years to come back. He may be a joker but there is a backbone of steel.

He charts the resurgence of Rangers last season to the Co-operative Insurance Cup final, which the champions won in extra time. ‘‘It is the strangest game in the world,’’ he said of the Old Firm fixture. ‘‘It is one game that can kill you or one game that can propel you to another gear. We were fortunate that day that we got the upper hand, we played well, and took a great boost from that game. It set us on a great run until the end of the season. Up until then, Celtic were more dominant. They were worthy of their title credentials at that time the way they were playing.

‘‘We just worked hard. We got results and, basically, Celtic never got results. The Inverness game changed the whole complexion of the league. From Celtic being one game away from winning the league, we were one point away from winning the league. That is how quickly it can change,’’ he said.

Durrant was keen to emphasise the impression of Rangers as seasoned winners. This, of course, does not stand up to scrutiny in Europe but has a resonance in the league. ‘‘We were fragile at the start of the season. We were trying to bed in new players and we were a wee bit all over the place in our defending. I would not say we have a level of comfort but we have to be calm, slow down here. We know what we are. ‘‘

Durrant stresses the values of hard labour. ‘‘We have got a great bunch of boys, they work hard and they are good, honest pros. We would all love to have the flair players -- the Laudrups, the Gascoignes -- but we have built our squad. We don’t give away much but we have got a mean streak in Jelavic, Naismith and Lafferty, who are banging in the goals. We are a good, honest team which does an honest day’s work. If we do that week in week out, then we won’t be far away.’’

Durrant could afford to make a reference to his rather garish days as a player. ‘‘I liked a laugh and a wee night out but you can get away with that when you are playing. As you can see with the colour of my hair now, it is a far more stressful side when it comes to coaching. There is a personal determination and a personal pride but there is a pride in the players. I had great moments as a player but they are far better when you see other players winning and you know you are part of it,’’ he said.

He is still part of the wind-ups. Only failure can staunch them.