BRINGING BACK THE BUZZ

Ferguson can hardly contain himself as he sees Gerrard laying firm foundations for Rangers

DICK ADVOCAAT seized both shoulders of the young prospect, stared deep into his eyes and barked the demand masked loosely as a question. ‘When we get home, you will sign?’ he probed of 20-year-old Barry Ferguson. That very public display of management from the Dutchman came following a Rangers friendly near Bergen in Norway 20 years ago this week. Ferguson had just stamped himself, in a pre-season non-event, as the future of the club under Advocaat and there was no way the disciplinarian boss was letting the midfielder away with leaving a new deal unsigned on David Murray’s desk back in Scotland.

With a five-year contract and a promise to play in the centre of a midfield featuring Giovanni van Bronckhorst, Jorg Albertz and Andrei Kanchelskis, the wide-eyed Ferguson was on the cusp of all his boyhood dreams coming true.

Two decades later, Ferguson is struggling to contain his excitement once again. At the age of 40. He admits this boyish exhilaration isn’t proving easy to rein in. And this

time he is trying to keep a lid on those emotions purely as a fan.

There probably hasn’t been as much anticipation and elation concerning a Rangers era, without a competitive ball being kicked, since Advocaat made merry use of those millions but kept a local lad as the core of a team.

Ferguson feels like every other Rangers fan still pinching themselves that a global icon is now steering a hitherto rudderless ship. Steven Gerrard has no first-team managerial experience and Ferguson knows no more than any other Ibrox regular if he will turn out to be a master tactician in the dugout.

That hasn’t stopped him sensing this appointment, all he has learned about the work undertaken in Spain over the past fortnight and the recruitment driven by Gerrard and Mark Allen’s staff gives Rangers a serious chance of winning silverware and going on a run in Europe for the first time in eight years.

Ferguson said: ‘I can sense a different mentality this time. And there’s a different vibe among the supporters I’ve spoken to as well. Okay, it’s difficult not to get over-excited. I find myself trying not to get too carried away, that’s hard.

‘I am excited. I think it’ll be a different Rangers this year. I just hope we have a better season than last, try and get a bit of silverware back and try to progress. Get into the Europa League and mount a decent challenge to Aberdeen. Then Celtic. I’ve been impressed by the business done so far.’

The extent of the business is nothing new around the everchanging landscape of Rangers. A succession of summers has featured a rush of imports. First there was Mark Warburton’s influx to smash the Championship.

A year later, the botched rebuild featuring Joey Barton and Niko Kranjcar among nine signings to prime the club for the Ladbrokes Premiership. Last year, Pedro Caixinha’s nine new boys had arrived by mid-August. Now Gerrard needs to do it all over again.

Ferguson trusts there will be no requirement for more expensive upheaval 12 months from now. Jamie Murphy, Allan McGregor, Scott Arfield, Connor Goldson, Nikola Katic, Jon Flanagan and on-loan Ovie Ejaria were all snapped up in time to take part in a pre-season camp in Spain. All bar Katic have the benefit of English top-flight experience.

‘Rangers have signed a lot of players in each of the last few windows but, this time, I think they’ve brought in a different calibre of player,’ said Ferguson. ‘They’ve played at a good level in England or outside the UK.

‘I’ve seen a lot of players come and struggle to adapt to Scottish football. But I’m sure these guys will because they’ve got good pedigrees. I’m impressed by the level of the signings. Good players cost money in a transfer fee or wages.

‘So credit to the board because they’ve backed Steven. But he wouldn’t have taken the job if that wasn’t going to be the case. I’m surprised at the amount of deals done early but it’s the best way. Sign players at the start of pre-season so you can get them all together.

‘I’ve been in a situation myself when I was going to sign for a club but haven’t got there until the last couple of days of pre-season. The manager will be delighted to get them done before having ten days with most in Spain. That’ll make a difference.’

The club’s head of performance, Jordan Milsom, has been preparing those new arrivals and Gerrard’s inheritance for an ‘aggressive’ style of play during the early days of tough training. Gerrard was quick to highlight, before the trip, he was aghast to note Rangers wilting in fitness terms to Celtic on the March day at Ibrox their brief flirtation with title thoughts was exposed as fantasy.

Those comments were music to the ears of Ferguson, who faced Gerrard many times for Blackburn and Birmingham, including on his Rovers debut in September 2003, and who can’t wait to see how Rangers react to demands for a high-pressing style and improved

physicality.

‘It looks to me as if he’s getting a kind of physical presence about them, which I felt they lacked last season,’ noted Ferguson. ‘Certainly against Celtic and in some games away from home. So that’s one of the things I think he’s identified.

‘I noticed, when I went back down to England with Birmingham, that it was less about what kind of player you are. You’ve got to be an athlete to play the game now. Steven Gerrard was always as fit as a fiddle.’

Sixteen months ago, Ferguson was one of the candidates interviewed to become Pedro Caixinha’s No3. If striker Kenny Miller was horrified at the goings-on inside a Rangers dressing room led by the Portuguese flop then heaven knows how Ferguson might have reacted to being part of a problem set-up.

The alarm bells rang loudest a year ago when Luxembourg minnows Progres Niederkorn bundled Rangers out of the Europa League at the first stage of qualifying. Any hope of carrying momentum into the season was killed right then.

Ferguson believes Gerrard should be targeting a place in the group stages, dismissing any suggestion Thursday-Sunday fixtures might hamper domestic progress.

‘Getting off to a good start in the Europa League could be a real positive,’ said Ferguson. ‘It would give a morale boost. A club like Rangers should be in the Champions League, for me. But, for now, it’s about getting through Europa qualifying rounds.

‘It’s important Rangers are in the group stages. That’s why it’s important that he’s brought new players in early. He’s already mentioned that he wants them fit and ready for Europe. I’m sure they’ll do it this year.

‘It can’t get any worse, can it?

I can sense a change in the mentality this time. There’s a different vibe

I’ve seen players struggle to adapt to Scottish game. These guys will adapt.

Progres was an embarrassment, a shocker of a result. It was disastrous. You have to work harder than your opponent. But in that tie, it looked to me like Rangers didn’t want it as much as Progres.

‘With a manager like Gerrard in — and the type of character he is — if a player isn’t giving 100 per cent he just won’t play. In terms of fitness, playing in Europe only starts to affect you towards the end of a season.

‘Thursday and Sunday shouldn’t affect players at this stage. You won’t train on a Friday or Saturday but players prefer that. Of course, there will be difficult games because you go into some of them blind.

‘You don’t know too much about the teams you’re playing against. But Rangers must get into the group stages.’

Ferguson is intrigued who will make the cut from an improved squad to start Gerrard’s first competitive tie — against Macedonian outfit Shkupi on July 12 at Ibrox. One of the strongest parts of the team now, he reckons, is at the goalkeeper position where his fellow Ibrox mischief-maker Allan McGregor was brought in on a free to challenge Wes Foderingham and Jak Alnwick.

Ferguson can recall high-class No 1 shirt battles between Andy Goram and Antti Niemi, Stefan Klos and Lionel Charbonnier then Ronald Waterreus and McGregor in his first spell at the club. And he believes multiple medal-winner McGregor brings a whole lot more than veteran shot-stopping talent to the group.

Ferguson said: ‘As a goalkeeper, McGregor is unbelievable. But the biggest thing for me is that Rangers need characters with a certain mentality — and he brings that. He’s come through the system there, knows the ins and outs of the club. He’s a great signing.

‘I actually thought we were quite strong in the goalkeeping department. Foderingham is good but, if a guy like McGregor becomes available, you go get him. People are saying he’s 36 now and all that but I watched him plenty of times last season for Hull and Scotland making exceptional saves.

‘It also creates competition at Rangers and that’s what they need.

‘When I was at Rangers there were always two, even three, top-class goalkeepers there at a time. You can get comfy if you think you’re going to play week in, week out. You’ve got to do the business on the park first and that’s Allan McGregor’s style.

‘It looks like we’re going in the right direction. There’s a guy as manager now who I’ve played against, been in his company a couple of times, everyone knows what a fantastic player he was and the character he is.

‘I like the mentality he will bring, I like the way he speaks. It’s what has been missing at Rangers. I don’t think anyone will get away with anything. I think if you’re not doing it on the pitch, you won’t play. I think he is creating a siege mentality. It’s what is needed and what was missing.’

BARRY FERGUSON was speaking at the ‘Live It For Lee’ game, an annual charity football match in memory of Lee Jamieson, who tragically lost his battle with leukaemia. Organised by Lee’s family, profits from the match go to BLOODWISE, a UK charity aimed at funding research into beating blood cancers.