Rangers: Derek McInnes says he 'belongs' at Ibrox as he vows to win Scottish Premiership as soon as possible

Derek McInnes says he “belongs” at Rangers after being unveiled as the club’s new manager and has stated his intention to win the Scottish Premiership as soon as possible.

The 54-year-old admitted he was surprised the opportunity to take over at Rangers presented itself this summer after being appointed to replace Danny Röhl, who left RB Salzburg last week.

McInnes came within minutes of guiding Hearts to the Premiership title last season, but returns to Ibrox, where he served as a player from 1995-2000, and has insisted the time feels right for him to take the reins at the club he supported as a boy.

“It’s a very special moment for myself, my family, there’s a lot of people I can think of on a day like this, but having known the club for a long time, supporting the club, I’m well aware of the responsibility that comes with being a manager,” McInnes said.

“So I’m excited to get started, I feel like it’s the right time for me and I feel like I’m ready for it. I feel like I belong here and I’m ready to get started and looking forward to just getting started.

“We will try to deliver a team that meets the demand here. I feel the Rangers fans – we’ve won a title for 15 years – they’ve suffered for a long time and it’s up to us to try now and play a key role in driving the standards and getting a winning Rangers team on the pitch more often than not.

“I have an idea of what my Rangers team should look like and hopefully it’s something similar to what the Rangers fans want too.

“Becoming Rangers manager is something I’ve always wanted to do. The call was a surprise when it came because obviously the manager was in place here. I was on my holiday and things kind of kicked off and it was a busy five or six days in between.

“Becoming Rangers manager is something I’ve always wanted and I feel so comfortable with the decision that was made and it feels right to be here.”

McInnes: This club should win

McInnes is Rangers’ 22nd permanent manager and their seventh appointment in eight years after a barren spell of title and trophy success.

A treble winner with the club as a player, McInnes knows the expectations of the staff on and off the pitch and insists he is back at the club to win.

“A lot of managers have sat in this position on their first day and said they want to do this and do that and it’s easy to say things but it’s much harder to get it done. There’s work to be done here but we want to do it well. The intention is to make sure the work is already done for next season in terms of recruiting players.

“It takes more than just being a good player to play for Rangers and deal with what’s expected. There’s a lot more under the hood and dealing with that expectation and I feel part of my job and the staff’s job is to try and get the most out of the current squad but also add players who can help us be successful.

“I’m not kidding, I know if we don’t win trophies it will be someone else sitting here before too long, but I come here with the confidence that with the resource we have, with the infrastructure in place and the support I’ve had from the people above us, that this should be a winning Rangers team and this is a club that should win.

“Rangers give me the best chance to win and that’s important. I know what I can bring Rangers, but equally I know what Rangers can give me.”

McInnes: The intention is to win the title as soon as possible

Hearts impressed during McInne’s last spell for their ability to play on the front foot and for their resilience to get over the line in scrappy games.

In contrast, some Rangers fans believe in recent years that their side have become too passive and easy to play against domestically while enjoying some European triumphs. McInnes aims to put that right and while he wants Rangers to win across the board, domestic success will be a priority.

“The task here is to win, I don’t want to talk about philosophies,” he said. “I know how I want my team to play, I think I’ve demonstrated that in my teams over a period of time now. The intention is just to win – we’ve got to win here.

“I want us to try and impose ourselves on the opposition. I don’t want teams to come here and feel comfortable and play their way into the game and all of a sudden that fear factor might not be there when they play Rangers.

“We have to make teams really fight when they play us, we have to make them suffer and we have to try to play in a way that allows us to do that.

“We have good players at the moment and we are going to bring in good players. You have to have quality to be a Rangers player, but it takes a lot more than that to have an identity and an intensity that is required to win games domestically.

“We want to do well across the board in Europe but we need to start being more relevant again winning trophies domestically and that’s the key for me.

“The intention is to win the title as soon as possible.”

McInnes on summer recruitment

Rangers have already signed Lawrence Shankland, who had captained Hearts under McInnes, and the new manager insists that whoever joins the Scottish striker will be charged with living up to the expectations placed on them at Ibrox.

“I want the players to feel that when you sign for Rangers it’s on them, that part of the reason when they sign here is to be successful, they have to feel that responsibility,” he said.

“A lot of players will sign for a club for a lot of reasons – location, financial reasons, everything else – but there has to be an element that when we all sign here it’s to win trophies and be successful, because if you’re not, you’re not here for long and it’s not a good place to be when you’re not winning. I want to enjoy being a Rangers player and I can only enjoy it by only being here a Rangers player. winning games.

“The heat and all the noise comes really quickly if you don’t win and we’ve had a period now where we haven’t won enough so it’s our job to try to change that. It’s not words that have to do it, it’s actions, it’s day-to-day, it’s standards, it drives the pace of it all, but to work with a good player is to be here and really enjoy being here and to enjoy being here. Successful.”

He added: “We’re probably not going to get everything we want [in the transfer window] and not many clubs do that, but it is important that the money we have available, the budget we have to work with, we use it well.

“I’d like to think we’ve got players in the building who are capable of a bit more as well and it’s up to me and the staff to get that out of them. There may be changes, players leaving, players coming in, but every player that comes in will give us something. We’re working hard at the moment to try and make sure we bring in a level of player so we can cope with the extra quality that we can obviously cope with.

“Last season I think at times during the games Rangers showed how good they were. Individually very good but I think it’s up to us to try and make ourselves more of a team and try to make sure we win close games. There were too many draws maybe last season and it’s trying to find those answers in the game but with that you have to have confident players for Rangers. I want a Rangers player with confidence.”

McInnes: The circumstances weren’t right in 2017

McInnes turned down the chance to take over at Rangers when he was at Aberdeen and he insisted the timing was not right back in 2017, but he is grateful to have been offered the opportunity again.

“I feel like I was ready for it at the time, but it was just a different set of circumstances and a lot was happening at the time,” he said.

“I left a really safe club in Aberdeen and had an enjoyable spell at Aberdeen. At the time I also wanted to be Rangers manager, but it was a different ownership, a different set of circumstances, a different feeling, to be honest, as soon as we got into talks and negotiations.

“I think today is about becoming Rangers manager rather than looking back. I’m just happy to have the opportunity to be asked again and with that I’m just keen to get going.”

Gillespie: We let Röhl go so we could hire McInnes

Rangers’ last two appointments in Russell Martin and Röhl were made as head coaches, but McInnes will be Rangers manager, a position usually held by whoever is in the dugout at the club.

Chief executive Jim Gillespie says it was important to hire McInnes as manager and insists Rangers decided to let Röhl leave the club because they wanted to appoint McInnes.

“At the end of the day we gave a nod to the history of this football club and it was important to Derek and important to us that we did that and that’s why he’s Rangers manager,” Gillespie said. “We gave Danny our support in May and then things developed over time. The decision for Danny to move on was our decision, Rangers Football Club’s decision.

“Danny was contracted to Rangers and had no buyout, so at the end of the day we could have told Salzburg he was not for sale, but we decided we wanted to bring Derek in and that was a motivation to let Danny go and get Derek because he was a man we had already highlighted who could bring success to Rangers.”