Has Graeme Murty realised his mistake with January signing?

Graeme Murty has been through a lot the past 10 days. We might not entirely rate him as manager but we do have sympathy with the man over the grief he’s taken, including by us.

It is our job to hold our Rangers to account, but it gives us no pleasure to criticise Rangers and our personnel – which is why we were delighted the man finally dropped the utterly underperforming Alfredo Morelos and gave Jason Cummings a proper start.

The ex-Hibs man was in the XI v Killie but that was a truly dreadful performance all round, following up on a hard fought but ultimately unsuccessful Old Firm match.

Yesterday’s visit of Hearts saw the 22-year old striker given a well-earned starting berth and he certainly took it.

Cummings really only had one true clear chance, and clinical dog that he is, he took it.

He had two other chances – a one-on-one with the keeper which he was unable to make the most of through a minor injury (which saw him taken off), and an earlier weak shot.

But the fact is he shows every performance the work rate, movement, pace and enthusiasm that deserves to keep him in the XI, and he has absolutely earned his place against Celtic next week.

Cummings has intelligence and maturity beyond his years. While his media displays are a tad amusing and the lad is always ‘buzzin’, on the pitch he’s a different animal and truly leads at the front.

Always communicating with his team mates, getting into space for them, linking up with them, and only taking the shot when one is on, unlike the increasingly disillusioned Morelos who now just shoots wildly by default.

Our readers know we’re huge fans of Cummings, and he keeps on proving why. His lack of minutes have been frankly ridiculous, and we gave up on him ever seeing the light of day under Murty.

With Morelos’ hideous form and Cummings’ rather impressive displays, there is simply zero case for the former to be in the XI next week and every reason for Cummings to be.

And if he doesn’t start that one, it suggests Murty only picked him yesterday for reasons other than football.

Just as well he proved his justification (again) on a football level. That’s the one that counts.