Hibernian boss Neil Lennon has admitted his surprise of the turmoil surrounding Rangers following their latest setback.
The Ibrox club, and much of Scottish football, were stunned when Derek McInnes turned down the opportunity to take the vacant manager's position, instead choosing to remain at Aberdeen.
In the meantime caretaker Graeme Murty has led the club to three successive wins and they currently sit second in the Premiership table, but despite their recent form, Lennon has been surprised by their continued off-field struggles.
Read more: Rangers in Russia: How the Light Blues made history behind the Iron Curtain
"It's a sign of the times," he said. "Five or 10 years ago, people would have snapped your hand off to be Rangers manager.
"It's difficult for me to comment because I don't know what's going on behind the scenes. I was surprised Derek turned it down but there were obviously personal and other reasons for not taking the job.
"It is a bit peculiar that a club of that stature, it's taken them so long to find a manager, but they will feel it's important that it's not just a short-term fix."
Lennon's Hibs side are set to host Gers at Easter Road on Wednesday night after coming from two goals down to claim a thrilling point against Celtic on Sunday, and he is well aware of the threat they pose despite their troubles.
The former Celtic manager said: "They're still in the embryonic stages of building to try and get back to where they were, and that takes a bit of time.
"We respect them, I think it will be a difficult game. They are second in the league, but they should be second in the league with the resources they have.
"They are off the back of three wins so maybe they are starting to find a consistency of performance. We have to be mindful of that and not get carried away by the comeback on Sunday."
Read more: Rangers in Russia: How the Light Blues made history behind the Iron Curtain
A win on Wednesday night would see Hibs go level on points with Gers, while Aberdeen are also currently on 33 and while he is not expecting to finish the season as high as second, Lennon knows it is important to capitalise while they can.
"It's a difficult ask to finish second, but while we're in amongst it then yeah (we have a chance)," he said.
"Three points are important because we have Aberdeen at the weekend, and it's a big game between two big clubs.
"There's a rivalry there now, established since the cup final and with both teams being in the Championship in their recent history."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel