AS a lifelong Rangers supporter as well as a current player, Andy Halliday has a keen appreciation of how somebody who represents the Ibrox club should conduct themselves.

So while the temptation to publicly berate Pedro Caixinha, the manager who made his life at the club he grew up cheering on from the Ibrox stands so miserable he felt the need to leave on loan last summer, may be great he resists it.

The Portuguese coach, whose calamitous eight month reign at the Glasgow club was brought to an end back in October, may have been openly and inadvisedly critical of the likes of Barrie McKay, Kenny Miller and Michael O’Halloran during his time in this country.

Yet, Halliday clearly has a greater understanding of the standards expected at Rangers and is unwilling to do the same even though Caixinha has long since departed and he clearly has much that he can say about him.

“I don’t want to talk too much about the previous manager,” said Halliday earlier this week at Auchenhowie as he reflected on his wretched spell working under him.

“I will do what I think is right and behave in the way I think a Rangers man should. He (Caixinha) did quite a lot of talking in the media about his players, but I am not willing to do that. I wish him all the best for the future.”

However, the midfielder, who is, slowly but surely, gaining in fitness and sharpness after a disappointing stint with Gabala in Azerbaijan and featuring more in the Rangers first team, was prepared to talk for the first time about just how tough working under Caixinha had been for him.

“It’s very difficult to come into a place like this as a football player and not be happy,” he said. “But the last spell became a bit difficult for me.

"Pretty early on in Pedro’s tenure I knew that my immediate future wasn’t going to be at Rangers. At that period he sort of made it as difficult as possible for me to enjoy.

“I tried to. Every day. Because I know I am lucky to be here and lucky to come in and train every single day. But it got to a difficult period and that’s why I went on loan. I could no longer stay and fight to be a part of his plans. So I went.”

Halliday declined to expand on exactly how Caixinha had made his life uncomfortable. “He managed to,” was as far as he was prepared to elaborate. But whatever he did it soon became apparent to him he would have to, temporarily at least, move elsewhere to get a regular game.

“I don’t think the previous manager and I had a general hatred for each other, it just wasn’t a great working relationship,” he said.

“One thing I will say is he was honest. He made it clear my future wasn’t at the club. That was all we really spoke about at that point. It was up to me to work hard for my own personal benefit because I knew at the end of the season I would need to go on loan.

“I spoke to him and said that was the thing for me because I didn’t want to stay here and not be part of the plans and just come into training every day and not having football on Saturday. But I went on loan and still didn’t get any football on a Saturday!”

Halliday endured, for different reasons, an equally exasperating period at Gabala. The five foreigner rule limited his first team outings and he was glad to return to his homeland in January. He has found the environment under Caixinha’s replacement Graeme Murty to be completely different to the one he left. Not even being left out of the side is getting him down.

“Thankfully I am back now,” he said. “The gaffer has been excellent with me, patient with me to get up to speed and try to compete and contend as well as I can. The general feeling is night and day in terms of positivity around the group and the players.”

Murty, who has only been confirmed as Rangers manager until the end of the season, has improved the side’s form and results as well as strengthened considerably with some excellent signings during the January transfer window.

Halliday is hoping he does well enough to stay in his position on a long-term basis and is optimistic he can help him achieve.

“He's taken to the job very well because it's a difficult first job,” he said. “He came in at a time when morale was down and we weren't sitting too pretty in the league. So his first job when he came in was to pick up the spirits and he made a good start.

“But he's very thorough in his philosophy and every day in training he demands intensity and competition from the players. He's been especially good to me since I came back and I appreciate his patience.

“For the short term we need to try to help him out and get results, and then his future will take care of itself. He's a good man manager as well, but he has many attributes and for the short term we hope we can repay the faith he's shown in us.

“I think he has all the attributes because he's headstrong, he does well with the boys around the place, he has a philosophy we all agree can take us forward as a football club, and I get along with him well.”

The same cannot be said of every Rangers manager Andy Halliday has played under at Ibrox.