KENNY McDowall has dismissed speculation that Rangers want Ian Cathro as manager and reports that Felix Magath wants to join the club as technical director.

McDowall would go "stir crazy" if he took to heart every report about the club, he said.

McDowall is an uneasy presence as caretaker manager at Ibrox and previously described his role as "tainted" because of the departure of his friend Ally McCoist. He is in position until the end of the season and it was reported this week that Cathro, Valenica's 28-year-old Scottish assistant manager, may be approached to take the job on a permanent basis. Appointing a new manager is almost the least of Rangers' worries given the current chaos of their ownership saga but McDowall was asked if the Cathro story was hurtful. Magath was linked with a role at Murray Park after it emerged he had bought one percent of Rangers' shares.

"I am the caretaker manager at the moment," said McDowall. "There is no point me worrying about anything apart from trying to beat Alloa. You could go stir crazy if you worried about everything that was in the paper. I've not had any talks with the board about the job, I just carry on. I haven't really sat down in the manager's office and taken it all in, I'm too busy to be honest.

"I am not going to kid you on, it is a big job. It is an absolute honour to be in charge of Glasgow Rangers, whether it is caretaker or manager or whatever other post. At the moment I am at the helm and I have got to try and get this team winning games and see where that goes. I know the boys well and I have worked with them long enough. It is not as if a whole lot has changed and I have been flung into a bunch of guys I don't know. I know them, they know me and we carry on regardless."

Rangers face Alloa at the Indodrill Stadium in their second fixture since selling their most effective performer this season, Lewis Macleod, to Brentford. McDowall is desperate to build on last weekend's 3-1 defeat of Dumbarton. Rangers are 13 points behind Hearts, who they face at Ibrox next Friday, and McDowall admitted that Rangers' desperate financial position left they wide open to other clubs coming in for their players: "It is January. You are in the hands of the Gods. I can't control that, the board can't control that. If people come in then you can't stop them coming in. It certainly won't be my decision [to sell anyone].

"I have not been told there is anyone coming in at this minute in time. Like any other coach or manager, it would be good to add a couple to the squad if we could. But in the current climate I totally appreciate the financial situation. I will carry on with the group I have got. They are a good group, they are sitting second in the league and are pushing, and we will keep doing that."