Seven weeks ago, Derek McInnes was being asked whether he would survive the season. Now he is two results away from taking Rangers to the top of the Scottish Premiership for the first time since he walked back through the Ibrox doors in June.
Rangers host Kilmarnock on Saturday knowing that three points would move them onto 19, above Celtic, at least until Martin O’Neill’s side travel to Motherwell the following afternoon. It is a modest lead to play for, and one that could last less than 24 hours. But for a manager who was being described as having his job under threat after a European exit so bad that former players called his side an absolute pub team, even a few hours at the summit would mark a remarkable turn in fortunes.
A European Exit That Nearly Cost Him His Job
McInnes arrived at Rangers in June on a three year deal, lured from Hearts after guiding them to second place in the Premiership the previous season, a campaign that only slipped away from Tynecastle on the final day. He replaced Danny Rohl, who left Ibrox with two years still on his contract to take charge at RB Salzburg, in a deal that brought Rangers around £2m in compensation.
The early signs were grim. Rangers were eliminated from Europa League qualifying by Jagiellonia Bialystok before dropping into a Conference League play off against Jablonec, a tie they somehow contrived to lose on penalties having won the first leg at Ibrox. Vakhtang Tchanturishvili’s extra time equaliser forced the shootout, and when it was lost, the inquest was brutal. Kris Boyd said Rangers look like an absolute pub team and questioned whether there was any creativity left in the side, while Andy Halliday argued on BBC Sportsound that it was among the worst European performances in the club’s history, pointing to five different formations and constant personnel changes as evidence a manager was still searching for an answer. McInnes himself admitted he was mortified by what he had seen, and did not duck the blame.
Domestically it was little better at first. Rangers failed to win any of their opening four Premiership matches under their new manager, a run that, combined with the European collapse, had supporters who had been calling for his sacking only a few weeks into the job feeling vindicated rather than premature.
Six Wins and Two Old Firm Scalps
What has followed since is close to a complete reversal. Rangers beat Celtic 3-0 at Ibrox in the League Cup semi final on 13 September, McInnes’s first Old Firm win since returning to Govan, and followed it seven days later with a 1-0 win at Parkhead in the league, Ryan Naderi’s 33rd minute strike settling a tense derby in which Olwethu Makhanya had a second Rangers goal chalked off for handball. Two Old Firm victories inside a week, against a Celtic side that had also just suffered a painful European exit of their own, did more than any set of results could to quiet the questions over McInnes’s position.
By the time the season paused for the October international break, Rangers had strung together six consecutive wins in all competitions, a run fans on supporter forums were already grading as somewhere between an A and a treble charge, albeit with the obvious caveat that the European exit still sits on the record. Dougy Agnew, writing on one Rangers fan site, credited McInnes with getting a tune out of his new players, accepting they are still gelling together, while others pointed to the reinvention of James Penrice in midfield and Min-su Kim at right wing back as the kind of tactical tinkering that had looked chaotic in Europe but has clicked domestically. The caution from more sceptical voices, that Rangers were still out of Europe before the break even started, was a fair one, but it has not stopped the gap to Celtic shrinking from what once looked a comfortable cushion to just two points.
What Saturday Could Mean
McInnes reported a clean bill of health after the international break, with the vast majority of his returning players declared fit to train in full on Friday. The one significant worry is Cammy, who picked up a hamstring strain in the closing minutes of the win at Parkhead and is expected to be out for a number of weeks before his recovery is reassessed, while Dujon, who suffered a minor strain in the same game, has trained and should be available. It leaves McInnes with close to a full squad to pick from against a Kilmarnock side that will arrive at Ibrox as clear underdogs.
Should Rangers win as expected, the symbolism of going top, even briefly, should not be understated for a club that is still chasing its first league title since 2021 and a manager who was fielding questions about his future as recently as late August. Celtic’s trip to Fir Park on Sunday, live on Sky Sports, gives Martin O’Neill’s side the chance to respond immediately, and few inside Ibrox will be under any illusion that a single weekend at the top settles anything in a title race that still has the vast majority of its matches to come. O’Neill’s side have had their own difficult few weeks, losing twice to Rangers either side of a Europa League defeat to Ferencvaros, and will want to use Motherwell to steady themselves rather than hand their oldest rivals a symbolic landmark to savour.
What McInnes has built in a matter of weeks is still fragile, built on the back of a run that includes nothing more testing than Kilmarnock and two games against a Celtic side going through its own crisis of confidence. But the contrast with where he stood after Jablonec could hardly be starker. A manager who was fighting for credibility in August is now fighting, quite plausibly, for the Premiership title in October, and Saturday offers the first tangible proof that the rebuild at Ibrox might be further along than anyone outside the building expected.
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