IAN MURRAY still disagrees with Raith Rovers’ decision to sack him after just ONE league game this season.
The ex-Airdrie and St Mirren boss was axed after defeat on the opening day of the Championship – to his former Diamonds side.
Raith Rovers made a shock early season change[/caption]
Ian Murray still doesn’t agree with Raith Rovers’ reasoning[/caption]
Murray’s exit was an even bigger surprise coming just months after he took Raith to within a game of the Premiership – losing in the promotion play-offs to Ross County.
His stock remains high after last season’s second place finish and the 43-year-old has been linked with the replacing Craig Levein at St Johnstone – another SPFL dismissal that caught many by surprise.
He only signed a contract extension six months before the axe fell and Neil Collins replaced him.
Now Murray says he’s ready for his next job wherever that may be – and is willing to abandon a busy schedule to return to the game.
However his exit still wrankles almost two months on – both the decision and how it was handled – and he took a cryptic swipe as he discussed his situation with the BBC’s Scottish Football Podcast.
He said: “I wasn’t expecting it. It was a less than three-minute phone conversation.
“I was told they wanted to go in a different direction. They felt that they had regressed in recent months and they were going to terminate my contract.
“And that was the end of the conversation.
“The first thought for most people was there was something else behind it, which then starts questioning my integrity at times because people like to talk and make some things up that they don’t know about.
“But there was nothing. I told him that I didn’t agree with the decision, 100 per cent. And I didn’t expect that decision to be made.”
Murray went on: “I wasn’t going to sit there and beg for my job.
“I felt I had enough credit in the bank to at least have had a conversation before a decision was made where we could maybe sit down around a table, shake hands even and walk away.
“But to do it over the phone I felt wasn’t right. You obviously try and evaluate the reasons that they gave, but they still don’t make any sense to me.”
Murray is raring to go again. He was named among the potential replacements at St Johnstone as soon as Levein’s exit was announced – alongside his Airdrie successor Rhys McCabe and fellow Championship rivals Scott Brown and John McGlynn.
Next Manager Odds
According to Gambling.com
- John McGlynn 6/4
- Tiernan Lynch 2/1
- Tommy Wright 5/2
- David Martindale 5/2
- Scot Gemmill 3/1
- Ian Murray 4/1
- Alex Neil 5/1
- Callum Davidson 11/2
- Scott Brown 6/1
- Billy McKinlay 15/2
- John Kennedy 8/1
- Neil Lennon 12/1
Murray added: “You have to be ready and I am ready. I didn’t need a rest. I’ve had my rest in the summer, so it wasn’t like I needed to recharge my batteries.
“Like any manager, I am open to any offer.
It’s sad when someone loses their job but that’s the nature of the business that we are in. Unfortunately, you are always waiting for someone to leave and you might have an opportunity.
“I have got a lot coming up in the next couple of weeks, which is really, really good – all football related – but if a job comes up before that, then fantastic.”
Website Gambling.com made league leading Falkirk boss McGlynn front-runner for the job in Perth at 6/4, followed by Larne FC manager Tiernan Lynch at 2/1
Former Celtic duo Brown and John Kennedy are 6/1 and 8/1 shots respectively, with Murray himself priced at 4/1.
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