PAUL MURRAY assumed the mantle of Rangers' interim chairman yesterday and vowed that events from the last four years would never be allowed to happen again.

Murray was successfully elected onto the new board of directors at the Ibrox general meeting alongside Dave King and John Gilligan, with Douglas Park added to the board later in the day. With King choosing not to take up the appointment until he has been passed as "fit and proper" by the Scottish Football Association and the stock exchange, Murray, a one-time director of the Rangers oldco, will lead the board in the short-term.

Part of the Blue Knights consortium that tried to buy the club in 2012, Murray was one of the staunchest critics of Craig Whyte whose tenure led Rangers first into administration and then liquidation. Since then, a number of unpopular figures such as Charles Green and the Easdale brothers have taken charge at Ibrox, to the dismay of many, including the late Sandy Jardine who wanted their names stripped from inside Ibrox. Murray and King, however, agreed that the past could only be learned from, not erased.

"Sandy had said to Dave that they should take all these chairmen from the last four years off the wall of the boardroom and expunge that from the history of the club," revealed Murray. "Dave made the point, "Actually, the history is about good times and bad times". We have had the Ibrox Disaster, a few of them actually, we have had this and that, great times, and bad times.

"That is what makes you, the last 143 years. You have got to stick with the good and the bad. One thing we shouldn't do is forget what has happened in the last four years and never let it ever happen again. As long as I am on the board, I consider myself a custodian of this institution. It might sound a bit cheesy, but we are custodians of this institution and we are going to hand it on to the next generation, hopefully in a better shape than we got it in today. That has got to be our objective."

Murray was confident that, despite the disparate figures now in charge at Ibrox, there would be harmony among the various directors as they try to "rebuild this club".

"The key thing is that we all have a common purpose," he added. "Everyone in the group has the same view. If you have people with aligned interests, they tend to get on. Disagreements can be healthy in business, but we have to rebuild this club brick by brick and not take short-term decisions. We have to put in proper foundations, and we will get some things wrong, but we ask for patience. I think we have the support of the main stakeholders to do that. Having someone of Douglas [Park's] calibre on the board, from a personal point of view, is fantastic. That calibre of person with his intellect and energy is fantastic for the club."

Murray revealed there would now be discussions with Ally McCoist, currently on gardening leave, Kenny McDowall, working his 12-month notice period, about who will manage the team in the long-term.

"There have only been 13 men in the history of the club to have held that position," he added. "We see this as laying the foundations for a long-term project here. Appointing the first-team manager is a critical and fundamental decision.

"We are not going to rush into that. People have been approaching us, but we had no mandate to talk to anyone before getting this out of the way. We will also have to sit down with Ally and Kenny and have a conversation."