It is expected Barry Ferguson will demand certain standards from the Rangers players in how they conduct themselves on and off the pitch.
The Gers legend was club captain over two spells and led the team to trophy after trophy. During his work as a pundit, he has often bemoaned how low the club has sunk at different times.
Ferguson was confirmed as interim boss yesterday with fellow former players Allan McGregor, Neil McCann and Billy Dodds joining him as part of his backroom team and Issame Charai staying on after his recent appointment as Philippe Clement’s assistant.
Fergie has already made a promise to Rangers fans – that he will deliver attacking football with an aggression, which will be more than welcomed if he can pull it off.
Through his work in the media he has often talked about what it takes to be a player at Ibrox and it is expected he will be able to use his experience to relay that to players.
The former club captain even ruined his chances of a coach’s role under Pedro Caixinha by admitting his ambition to be manager to his would-be boss.
And further past comments from the 47-year-old can provide some insight into how he might approach the role.
Ferguson loved Steven Gerrard’s Rangers approach
Steven Gerrard delivered title number 55 in the 2020/21 season but during the campaign before that Ferguson already thought he was going about things in the right way.
The double signing of Jermain Defore and Steven Davis convinced him the league title could be won.
But he had already been won over by Gerrard’s management and general raising of standards around the place.
It is something he would presumably be looking to replicate.
Writing for the Daily Record at the time, he said: “Let me start by paying Steven Gerrard the ultimate compliment by saying Rangers suddenly feels like Rangers again. For the first time in almost eight years.
“Listen, let’s get this straight. I’m not going to say my old club are going to win the league this season on the back of two January arrivals.
“But what I will say is it feels as if they genuinely could. And that’s the biggest step forward there’s been at Ibrox since Walter Smith won the league title at Rugby Park in May 2011.
“When Gerrard came to the club I knew there would be big changes in terms of raising the standards of professionalism. That was an absolute certainty given the mess the previous manager had made of things behind the scenes having been so clearly out of his depth.
“But even so, when the new campaign kicked off I was crossing my fingers and toes in the hope Gerrard might be able to make a decent fist of this fight. That Rangers could at least put up a respectable challenge by cutting into the gap at the top. That was it. No more, no less.
“Now though the whole game has just been changed. I look at Davis and Defoe joining the camp in Tenerife and I think, ‘Here we go!’ Overnight a team that went into the shutdown with a chance of taking Celtic all the way now looks like one that truly believes it will. Like a proper Rangers team should.”
What Ferguson has said about taking over at Rangers
Asked what message he will send to the players, he said: “Enjoy it, you’re playing with Glasgow Rangers, it’s a privilege.
You walk through this training centre, I’ve not been here for a while and I see the changes.
“Enjoy yourself, they’re going to enjoy training, training will be tough, there’s no doubt, but it will be enjoyable as well. It’ll be at a certain standard which I would expect.
“So, yep, it’s all about enjoying your football and it gets serious at 90 minutes, it’s all about winning at Rangers, that’s how I was brought up and that’s the way I want my players to be.
“You have to win every game, the demands and expectations put on you here. When people come to watch you, they expect you to win games and I don’t think we’ve won enough this year.”
