FERGIE TIME! Derek McInnes reveals visit from Sir Alex and says wise words from managerial legend helped him put slow start at Ibrox into perspective

By the time he eventually stepped away from Manchester United in 2013, Sir Alex Ferguson left a trophy cabinet bursting at the seams and a legacy as one of the greatest managers of all time.

During his 27 years in charge at Old Trafford, Sir Alex won 38 major honours and did so with a brand of football that was both entertaining and richly successful.

But it wasn’t all plain sailing. Far from it, in fact. After making the move from Aberdeen in 1986, Sir Alex’s first few years with United were difficult.

They finished 11th in the league in two of those seasons and 13th in another. The fans were unconvinced. After United were thrashed 5-1 by rivals Man City in 1989, some supporters held up ‘Fergie out’ banners.

We will, of course, never know for sure just how close Ferguson came to being sacked. But the consensus will always be that a Mark Robins winner in an FA Cup tie against Nottingham Forest in 1990 probably kept him in a job.

From his own point of view, Derek McInnes can appreciate the importance of a new manager being given time to turn things around.

The disastrous UEFA Conference League qualifying round exit to Jablonec could easily have defined the season for Rangers and, with some fans calling for a change, it could have ensured the McInnes era at Ibrox was short-lived.

Now, on the back of six straight wins – two of which came against Celtic – McInnes and his players have a new lease of life as they return from the international break.

Earlier this week, Sir Alex was visiting some family in Glasgow and paid a visit to the Rangers training ground in Auchenhowie.

He was a regular companion for McInnes last season when Hearts were trying to shatter the Old Firm duopoly and win the league title.

After his own mini-revival which saw him named manager of the month for September, McInnes explained how Sir Alex had offered some reassurance and drew parallels with his own early struggles at United.

Even beyond that, he pointed out that his own United team could be notoriously slow starters but would invariably come on strong at the business end of the season.

‘He messaged on Monday to see if he could come up and see us on Tuesday and he was up in Glasgow dealing with one or two things and seeing his brother,’ said the Rangers boss.

‘He came in on Tuesday for lunch and spent a bit of time with the staff and myself chewing the fat as he does. It was great to see him.

‘He’s in good health, obviously he’s got a wee bit of difficulty with his walking at the minute, but he’s determined. He’s two months away, he says, from being right as rain again. He certainly looked in decent spirits.

‘He’s somebody that’s always been really supportive. I’m sure he is for a lot of managers, but myself, he’s been really kind with that.

‘Any time you spend with him, either on the phone or in person, you’ve got to take that opportunity. I’m grateful for that.

‘He was, particularly last season, a big supporter of what we were doing at Hearts. He was a regular visitor, so it’s nice that we managed to catch up.

‘We’ve had a couple of conversations since I’ve been at the club in recent months, but to see him in person was good, particularly after his health scare.

‘I had a discussion with him in the summer. He enjoyed what we were doing at Hearts. I think he genuinely felt that a club outside the Old Firm could win the league.

‘And obviously last season he was a regular visitor. But I think he obviously understood when the opportunity to come here was there for me. We’d spoken long and hard about that as well.

‘I think he just wants good things to happen for you. He has been very supportive of myself and he is somebody that I enjoy the conversations I have with.

‘There’s always something you come away with that he hasn’t said previously. He spoke about his own difficult start at Man United. He said it’s how you finish a season, not how you start a campaign. Sometimes it can take time.

‘As we know in modern football, sometimes you don’t always get the time. He thought we were really strong in the performance at Celtic Park in particular.’

Rangers reeled off six straight wins prior to the international break and blew the title race wide open with a 1-0 victory over Celtic at Parkhead three weeks ago.

Now only two points behind their bitter rivals, they have a chance to go top of the league when they take on Kilmarnock at Ibrox tomorrow.

Whilst it may only be for 24 hours, with Celtic playing at Motherwell on Sunday, McInnes has urged his players to seize the moment in what could be another notable landmark in their season.

‘It’s significant in the sense that we just want to go and win the game and keep the winning run going,’ he said. ‘But I don’t think it’s significant in that it tells you anything at this stage of the season.

‘On the flip side of that, I think any time you get a chance to go top of the league, you’ve got to try and take it. Because you can only take positives from it.

‘So there’ll be no real chat about going top of the league. It’s just a chat about making sure we do all we can to win the game.

‘The importance of these three points is the same importance as it was the three points at Celtic Park. And players need to realise that.

‘We can’t pick and choose games where we play well. At this club, you’ve got to make sure it’s an all-time thing and you keep working towards better performances.

‘We’re only just into the infancy of the season. There’s still so much to play for and we want to just try and maintain it.

‘We’re going to get judged over a period of months, not just one month and a few weeks. Everybody’s under no illusions about us having to keep the shoulder to the wheel and keep cracking on to get those improvements.’

Along with McInnes picking up the managerial award, Rangers defender Olwethu Makhanya was also named player of the month for September.

The 22-year-old South African centre-back has been a standout performer since making the move from Philadelphia Union for a fee of around £3million in the summer.

Asked about Makhanya’s contribution, McInnes added: ‘When we took him, we liked a lot of what we’d seen in these clips. In the games that we’d watched, we felt there was enough evidence there.

‘The profile, the speed of him, how he handles one-v-one situations, his calmness on the ball. We’ve all seen all of that.

‘The MLS is a completely different league to the Scottish league, where it’s a wee bit quicker, while it’s more physical, blood and thunder here.

‘The MLS is very technical, very slow-paced. You don’t need to defend loads of crosses and the like. It’s very tactical.

‘I think what we’ve seen in him is an ability to cope and deal with different situations. When we signed Makka, there was that hope that he could hit the ground running and get those improvements. But to come in and be as strong performance-wise as he’s been is a credit to him.

‘He’s over here, he’s on his own. There’s that adaptation as you get with a lot of the lads coming in to deal with what comes. He’s dealt with it brilliantly. He’s very quietly effective. Even Monday to Friday, he quietly gets about his work. It’s good that a player like him can get that recognition.

‘I think there could have been a few players for the team who could have won the award. But rightly so, his performances have been highlighted of late. We just need for that to continue and he knows that as well.’