DON'T do walking away?

Don't you believe it. Ally McCoist has admitted for the first time the demands of being the Rangers manager will result in him standing down from his high-profile position at some point in the future.

If, that is, he is not sacked before then following a poor run of results or at the whim of whoever holds power at Ibrox.

McCoist has just entered his fourth year in charge of Rangers; a remarkable accomplishment given all he has been forced to endure since succeeding his mentor Walter Smith in 2011.

He has gone from European football, to administration and liquidation, to playing plumbers and joiners in the bottom tier, to losing the only cup final he has reached, during that time.

There have, in amongst all that, been successive title wins and promotions. Definite progress has been made on the football side of an institution that has been continually blighted by off-field issues.

That he has worked under four separate chief executives - Craig Whyte, Charles Green, Craig Mather and the current incumbent Graham Wallace - during his tenure tells its own story.

The immediate future at Rangers remains, despite repeated assurances from Wallace that administration will not happen, shrouded in uncertainty due to ongoing financial difficulties.

When Rafat Rizvi, a convicted criminal on Interpol's most wanted list, was linked with Rangers on the front page of a tabloid newspaper earlier this week, it was just another day at the office for McCoist.

Gordon Strachan and Neil Lennon, who each spent four years as manager of Celtic, have both spoken of the extreme toll that managing an Old Firm club can take both mentally and physically.

Their words strike a chord with McCoist. "I understand exactly what Gordon and Neil have said," he agreed. "There is absolutely no doubt that managing Celtic and Rangers is at a different level to other clubs in terms of the intensity and focus that are on you 24/7.

"I even include some of the big clubs in England. Obviously, there are far bigger clubs which play in the Champions League. That is not the point I am trying to make. The spotlight you are under is greater."

Asked if there would come a stage where he would need a break from the pressure and scrutiny, he said: "There is no doubt that time will come. One hundred per cent it will come. I can not give you a timescale, but I can tell you it will come.

"I might not get the opportunity to let it come. There are lots of reasons it could get taken away from you. I don't worry about it at all. What will be, will be. But everybody has got a cut-off point."

Yet, McCoist, who famously said Rangers "don't do walking away" at the height of their troubles two years ago, has plenty of ambitions he wants to realise and still savours the opportunity he has been given.

"There is so much work to get done and I want to continue with that," he said. "The work here will never be finished. There will always be something else to do. You will have to win a game, have to win something else.

"Our main job is to get back to where we feel we belong and that is in the top flight. We have got a long way to go before we are there.

"Coming in here is fantastic. I promise you, there has never been a day as a player or as a coach or as a manager where I have come in here and gone: 'Oh, I can't face it!'

"There is not everybody who can do that. There are guys out there getting up at half past five in the morning and going to catch the bus to work they don't enjoy. That is difficult. We are really lucky because we enjoy our work. It is a fantastic working environment."

McCoist will send his side out to face Inverness Caledonian Thistle in the League Cup at Ibrox on Tuesday night knowing victory will be important psychologically. "If we can beat the team at the top of the tree in the country it would give everybody a boost," he said.

There is plenty Ally McCoist intends to achieve with Rangers in both the short term and long term before he eventually moves on.