Barry Ferguson has told his critics to judge him at the end of the season after holding his first press confernece as interim manager of Rangers.
The appointment of the 42-year-old, who hails from Hamilton, caught many by surprise on when he stepped in to replace Phillipe Clement in the wake of his sacking on Sunday.
Former Clyde and Kelty Hearts boss Ferguson has been out of the game for three years since resigning as manager of Alloa in February 2022, but now finds himself taking the reins at Rangers for the final three months of the season, which will also see Fergie come up against two-time Champions League winning boss Jose Mourinho when Rangers take on his Fenerbahce side in the last 16 of the Europa League next month.
His tenture begins in earnest tomorrow night when he tackles Kilmarnock and former Rangers team-mate Derek McInness.
And asked what he would say to those who felt he wasn’t qualified for the magnitude of the Ibrox hot-seat, Ferguson said: “Judge me at the end of the three months.
“I have no issue with that – everybody is entitled to their opinion – but one thing you will get from me and my staff is that we won’t take this lightly. We’re taking it seriously.
“That will start tomorrow night but I would rather be judged come the end of the season. I know I’ll also be judged game by game but that’s just the nature of the beast when you’re at Glasgow Rangers.
“We’ve got 11 weeks to go and a number of games to go. We’re still in the Europa League so we have to be positive and make sure we win every single game.
“That needs to start at Kilmarnock. It will be difficult. You know what happened the last time they went down there [a 1-0 defeat]. So this needs to be a different Rangers team that turns up on Wednesday.”
Ferguson takes the reins with Rangers second in the Premiership, a huge 13 points behind Celtic and he admitted he is still pinching himself after his whirlwind appointment, which has also seen him bring in former players Neil McCann, Billy Dodds and Allan McGregor to work alongside Issame Charai after his appointment as Clement’s No.2 just last month.
He added: “It’s obviously been hectic but it’s also been enjoyable. I’m surprised that I got the call on Sunday but it only took five minutes to agree.
“Then it was a case of me trying to get my staff together which took only 10 or 12 hours. I was worried it was going to drag on a bit but thankfully it wasn’t the case and I got the three guys I wanted to come in.”