Ian Durrant (born 29 October 1966) is a Scottish professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

coach and former player who is currently a first team coach at

East Kilbride East Kilbride (; gd, Cille Bhrìghde an Ear ) is the largest town in South Lanarkshire in Scotland and the country's sixth-largest locality by population. It was also designated Scotland's first new town on 6 May 1947. The area lies on a rais ...

. During his playing career, Durrant played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for Rangers for 13 years and was part of the team that won nine successive league championships to equal a record set by rivals

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

, although he barely played for three years after suffering a serious knee injury in 1988, having established himself as an important member of the side. He had a loan spell at Everton in 1994, and finished his career with

Kilmarnock Kilmarnock (, sco, Kilmaurnock; gd, Cill Mheàrnaig (IPA: ʰʲɪʎˈveaːɾnəkʲ, "Marnock's church") is a large town and former burgh in East Ayrshire, Scotland and is the administrative centre of East Ayrshire, East Ayrshire Council. ...

. Durrant also played for the Scotland national team, gaining 20

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

over a 12-year period.

Playing career

Rangers

Durrant started his career at Rangers. He was

Ally McCoist Alistair Murdoch McCoist, (; born 24 September 1962) is a Scottish former footballer who has since worked as a manager and TV pundit. McCoist began his playing career with Scottish club St Johnstone before moving to English side Sunderland i ...

boot boy A boot boy, often simply boots, was an English household servant. Usually a boy or young teenager, the boots was the lowest-ranking male servant; his main job was to clean, polish and care for the household members' boots and shoes, although he m ...

when the striker first joined the club from

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

in 1983."Si Ferry Meets... Ally McCoist"
- Open Goal, YouTube, published on 16 April 2018 Durrant made his debut against

Greenock Morton Greenock Morton Football Club is a Scottish professional football club, which plays in the Scottish Championship. The club was founded as Morton Football Club in 1874, making it one of the oldest senior Scottish clubs. Morton was renamed Green ...

in April 1985. The following season, he was a regular fixture in the Rangers team and scored in his first

Old Firm The Old Firm is the collective name for the Scottish football clubs Celtic and Rangers, which are both based in Glasgow. The two clubs are by far the most successful and popular in Scotland, and the rivalry between them has become deeply em ...

match. He displayed his early promise to a wide audience with his performances alongside fellow young midfielder

Derek Ferguson Derek Ferguson (born 31 July 1967) is a Scottish former professional footballer and manager. A creative midfield player, Ferguson is best remembered for his time with Rangers F.C., Rangers and Heart of Midlothian F.C., Heart of Midlothian. He a ...

in the

Scottish League Cup The Scottish League Cup (also known as the Viaplay Cup for sponsorship reasons) is a football competition open to all Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) clubs. First held in 1946–47, it is the oldest national League Cup in existen ...

finals of

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal ente ...

and

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, k ...

(scoring in both matches and also converting the winning shoot-out penalty in the latter). In October 1988 Durrant (then aged 21) was seriously injured in a challenge by

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...

player

Neil Simpson Neil Alexander Simpson (born 15 November 1961) is a Scottish former footballer, who played for Aberdeen, Newcastle United, Motherwell and Scotland. Simpson, nicknamed "Simmie", was born in London to Scottish parents who soon moved back to Ne ...

which tore the

cruciate ligament Cruciate ligaments (also cruciform ligaments) are pairs of ligaments arranged like a letter X. They occur in several joints of the body, such as the knee joint and the atlanto-axial joint. In a fashion similar to the cords in a toy Jacob's la ...

s in his right knee. Durrant did not play competitive football for almost three years. After one aborted return in early 1990, he made his comeback appearance in a reserve fixture in January 1991 against Hibernian and was welcomed back by around 30,000 fans. His league return was also against Hibs towards the end of that season, and he started the crucial winner-takes-all match against Aberdeen in May 1991 which secured the title for Rangers. In 1993 Durrant sued for damages against Simpson, and settled out of court for an undisclosed sum. Durrant went on to play a part in the 1992–93 UEFA Champions League run (scoring against

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...

at the Stade Velodrome) and helped Rangers equal Celtic's record of nine successive league championships, the last of which was clinched in

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

. Despite his injury problems he played a total of 346 competitive games for the club, scoring 45 goals, and won six League titles, three

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Ally McCoist Alistair Murdoch McCoist, (; born 24 September 1962) is a Scottish former footballer who has since worked as a manager and TV pundit. McCoist began his playing career with Scottish club St Johnstone before moving to English side Sunderland i ...

, Durrant transferred to

. He spent four years at

Rugby Park Rugby Park, also known as The BBSP Stadium Rugby Park for sponsorship reasons, is a football stadium situated in the Scottish town of Kilmarnock. It was first used in 1899 and is the home of Kilmarnock F.C. Rugby Park has also been used for con ...

before retiring and becoming coach of the youth team. He made 101 appearances for ''Killie'' including seven matches in the

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

, and the 2001 Scottish League Cup Final.

Scotland

Durrant made his international debut on 9 September 1987 against Hungary, eventually winning 20 caps for

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. His final match was as a Kilmarnock player, against

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern side of the island. A ...

on 30 May 2000.

Coaching career

In 2005, he returned to Rangers as coach of the under-19s and, later, the reserve team. Following the resignation of

Paul Le Guen Paul Joseph Marie Le Guen (, ; born 1 March 1964) is a French professional football manager and former player. He was most recently the manager of Ligue 2 club Le Havre. During his playing career, Le Guen played as a midfielder, and enjoyed a su ...

as Rangers manager on 4 January 2007, Durrant was caretaker manager until

Walter Smith Walter Ferguson Smith (24 February 1948 – 26 October 2021) was a Scottish association football player, manager and director, primarily associated with his two spells as manager of Glasgow club Rangers. A defender, Smith's playing car ...

was appointed manager. He immediately reinstated

Barry Ferguson Barry Ferguson (born 2 February 1978) is a Scottish football coach, former player and pundit who was most recently the manager of Alloa Athletic. Ferguson spent most of his playing career at Rangers, in two spells either side of a £7.5 mil ...

– the club captain who had been deposed by Le Guen – but lost his only game in charge of the first team, a

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Dunfermline Athletic Dunfermline Athletic Football Club is a Scottish football club based in the city of Dunfermline, Fife. Founded in 1885, the club currently play in Scottish League One after being relegated from the 2021–22 Scottish Championship. Dunfermline ...

. Durrant worked as a coach of the Rangers first team under Walter Smith and

. After McCoist left the club December 2014, Durrant was demoted to a position with the under-20 team. He left Rangers in June 2016. On 27 January 2017, Durrant was appointed assistant manager to

Stephen Aitken Stephen Aitken (born 25 September 1976 in Glasgow) is a Scottish football player and coach who was most recently manager of East Kilbride. Aitken played for Greenock Morton, Stranraer, Stenhousemuir and Junior side Arthurlie. He rejoined St ...

Scottish Championship The Scottish Championship, known as the cinch Championship for sponsorship reasons, is the second tier of the Scottish Professional Football League, the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland Scotland (, ...

side

Dumbarton Dumbarton (; also sco, Dumbairton; ) is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, on the north bank of the River Clyde where the River Leven flows into the Clyde estuary. In 2006, it had an estimated population of 19,990. Dumbarton was the ca ...

, after previous assistant Stephen Farrell took over as manager at

Scottish League One The Scottish League One, known as cinch League One for sponsorship reasons, is the third tier of the Scottish Professional Football League, the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottish League One was e ...

club

Stranraer Stranraer ( , in Scotland also ; gd, An t-Sròn Reamhar ), also known as The Toon, is a town in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. It is located in the historical parish of Inch in the historic county of Wigtownshire. It lies on the shores of L ...

. He became joint caretaker manager with Jamie Ewings when Aitken was sacked in October 2018 but left the club following Jim Duffy's appointment. He joined

Lowland League The Scottish Lowland Football League (SLFL, commonly known as the Lowland League) is a senior association football, football league based in central and southern Scotland. The league sits at level 5 on the Scottish football league system, actin ...

club

in June 2020, again as assistant manager to Aitken.

Personal life

Durrant was fined £1500 by Rangers in 1987 after his involvement in an incident in a kebab shop after Rangers had won the league championship. In October 2018, Durrant was filmed shouting "Fuck the Pope" during a Rangers supporters' dinner event in Bothwell attended by former players. He had previously been fined at court in October 1989 for singing sectarian songs and committing a

breach of the peace Breach of the peace, or disturbing the peace, is a legal term used in constitutional law in English-speaking countries and in a public order sense in the several jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It is a form of disorderly conduct. Public ord ...

during an incident in Glasgow's

Kinning Park Kinning Park is a southern suburb of Glasgow, Scotland. It was formerly a separate police burgh between 1871 and 1905 before being absorbed by the city. In 1897, it had a population of 14,326.Govan Parish School Board, ''The Members' Year Book ...

in May of that year, while he was out injured (he was in the company of

who was found not guilty in relation to his involvement).

Honours

Player

;Rangers *

Scottish Premier Division The Scottish Football League Premier Division was, from 1975 until 1998, the top division of the Scottish Football League and the entire Scottish football league system. It lay above the Scottish Football League First, Second and (from 1994) ...

: 1986–87, 1991–92, 1992–93, 1993–94, 1994–95, 1995–96 *

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,1991–92, 1992–93, 1995–96 *

: 1986–87, 1987–88, 1992–93, 1993–94Did not play in the

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

Scottish League Cup finals

References

External links

* *
Rangers ''Hall of Fame'' profile
*
Rangers profile at ''Sporting-Heroes.net''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Durrant, Ian 1966 births Living people Footballers from Glasgow Scottish footballers Rangers F.C. players Kilmarnock F.C. players Scotland international footballers Scottish Premier League players Scottish Football League players Everton F.C. players Premier League players Association football midfielders Rangers F.C. non-playing staff People educated at Bellahouston Academy Scotland under-21 international footballers