Derek McInnes: From Hearts Near-Miss to Rangers Hot Seat

While Scotland lives and breathes the World Cup, another storyline keeps cutting through the noise. Derek McInnes, the man who dragged Hearts to within minutes of a first title in 66 years, looks destined for a return to Ibrox.

If it happens, it will be another jolt in a Scottish football year already overflowing with drama.

From nearly-men with Hearts to the hot seat at Ibrox?

Barely a month has passed since Hearts’ agonising title near-miss, when McInnes’ side were seconds from history before Martin O'Neill’s Celtic snatched it away. Now the Hearts head coach stands on the brink of taking over the club he once patrolled as a player between 1995 and 2000.

The domino that sets it all off is Danny Rohl. With the German expected to head to RB Salzburg, the path clears for McInnes to stride back into Govan, this time as the man tasked with repairing Rangers’ brittle psyche and reviving a support that watched last season fall apart after the split.

Those who know him best think he is built for it.

‘Perfect fit’ and a hard edge

Tony Docherty has seen McInnes at close quarters for longer than most. They shared dugouts at St Johnstone and Aberdeen for well over a decade, grinding out results against richer clubs and more lavish squads. Docherty’s verdict on the potential Rangers move is blunt.

"It's a brilliant opportunity - if it presents itself," he told the Scottish Football Podcast, before laying it out even more clearly: "If it goes the way it looks as though it's going to go, I think it's the perfect fit for Rangers to be totally honest."

Docherty has watched Rangers stumble over the same psychological hurdle season after season. When last season’s split arrived, Rangers were second, a point ahead of Celtic and one behind Hearts. Rohl framed the run-in as “five cup finals”. His team lost four of them and limped home a distant third.

That collapse hardened the questions about Rangers’ mentality. Docherty is adamant McInnes brings the one thing the club has lacked.

"Derek is a hugely competitive person," he said. "You saw that last year, when people thought his team were going to disappear. Purely through him and the recruitment he did they were competitive right the way through."

For Docherty, that edge is not a slogan, it is a career theme. Aberdeen pushing Brendan Rodgers’ Celtic as far as their resources would allow. Hearts refusing to fold every time pundits wrote them off. Kilmarnock taking Old Firm scalps on their way back into Europe. The pattern is clear.

"I've got no doubt having that edge and having played at Rangers and having that affinity with the club, it will be a fantastic appointment," he added. "It is that mentality, you saw it in abundance last year. You've seen it all through his career, the amount of second-place finishes to Brendan Rodgers' Celtic with an Aberdeen team. And last year, every time Hearts were written off they would come up trumps."

Rohl out, McInnes in – a dream scenario?

From the other side of the white line, Rory Loy reads the situation the same way. The former Rangers and Dundee striker believes the club may just have stumbled into an ideal transition.

"To think three or four weeks ago, some Rangers fans - given the decline after the split - were looking to move him [Rohl] on," Loy told the Scottish Football Podcast. "To get money for him and to use that money to recruit Derek McInnes, I don't think it could have fallen more favourably for Rangers."

For Loy, the attraction is simple and overdue.

"The one thing Derek McInnes will bring above all else is the one thing that's been levelled at Rangers for the last decade - that's what is between the ears, that's mentality."

Rangers have chased that elusive steel while Celtic reset, retooled and kept winning. Now they face a Celtic side led by O'Neill, installed after delivering a league and Scottish Cup double last season. Seven straight wins to pinch the title at the death underlined the ruthlessness McInnes would have to match.

Proven organiser against a proven powerhouse

McInnes’ medal collection is modest compared to the demands at Ibrox. One League Cup with Aberdeen in 2014. A Championship title with Kilmarnock. No league crowns in the top flight. Yet his reputation has never been built on silverware alone.

At Aberdeen, he took teams into cup finals and title races against Rodgers’ Celtic juggernaut. At Kilmarnock, he engineered Old Firm defeats and guided them into Europe in his second season. At Hearts, he delivered the club’s best-ever points tally and came within a breath of stopping O’Neill’s surge to the championship.

"His one issue may be is he's coming up against a powerhouse when it comes to these things in Martin O'Neill," Loy said. "He has a proven track record. To win seven on the bounce last year to win the title was unbelievable."

Then came the line that will stick in the minds of Rangers fans still sore from the split collapse.

"I genuinely believe that if Derek McInnes was the Rangers manager going into the split, they don't collapse. They might not have won it - but I don't think they collapse. They take it to the last day at the very least.

And with Martin O'Neill in charge, he has a proven track record, I think it has all the ingredients for nip-and-tuck, last game of the season stuff.

A title race with teeth

That is the prospect that excites Docherty as much as anyone. The thought of O'Neill and McInnes going head to head across a full campaign, each driving standards, each hunting for marginal gains in a league where every dropped point is magnified.

"If it does happen and Martin O'Neill is in place at Celtic and Derek McInnes is in place at Rangers it's going to be one hell of a title race this year," Docherty said.

He knows the man he is talking about. Eighteen years in management. Fifteen of them with Docherty as his assistant. Different clubs, different budgets, the same relentlessness.

"Derek's strength is his longevity. He's been a manager for 18 years. For 15 years I was assistant to him. It's incredible to have that longevity and that amount of success."

If Rangers complete the move, they are not just hiring a former player or a safe pair of hands. They are betting that McInnes’ stubborn competitiveness, honed in the shadow of stronger squads and bigger chequebooks, can finally harden a team that has too often flinched when it mattered most.

In a league now framed by O'Neill’s Celtic and a potentially reborn Rangers, the next title might not just be about who plays the better football. It might come down to who blinks first.