Some may view spending an entire season warming the bench as a waste of a time - but not Jack Butland. The new Rangers recruit may not have sampled the minutes he was hoping for when he signed up at Old Trafford last summer, but the 30-year-old insists his 12 months on loan at Manchester United was anything but a year misspent.
The Red Devils may not be the all-conquering behemoth of Sir Alex Ferguson’s day but it remains one of the world’s few genuine super clubs, where the only thing set higher than the standards inside the club are the expectation levels from those outside peering in.
His season sitting on the sidelines acting as cover for David de Gea offered Butland an insight into what it takes to reach the top.
And he says he’s now desperate to put those lessons into practice on the pitch at Ibrox after agreeing to become Michael Beale’s third summer signing.