I see Rangers rebuild through the eyes of young me and players should be breaking out in a cold sweat - Barry Ferguson

It wasn’t easy being an ambitious young player at Rangers. It was never supposed to be.

Just when I was starting to think I had made the big breakthrough beside Gio van Bronckhorst at Rangers, I’d look over at the bench and see people like Rino Gattuso, Jorg Albertz, Tugay, Claudio Reyna, Ian Ferguson, Derek McInnes and Charlie Miller all sitting there, itching to take my shirt. But, as intimidating as it was for a young boy, I’ll tell you something, it didn’t half keep me on my toes.

And I don’t just mean on match days either. Every morning I’d go out onto that training ground knowing I had to be at the very top of my game if I wanted to stay in the centre of Dick Advocaat’s midfield. Honestly, there was a knot in my stomach at the thought of dropping out, knowing I might not ever get back in again because the quality all around the place was so high.

Why bring this up now, all these years later? Because I’m looking at the squad Michael Beale is putting together and it’s giving me flashbacks. I’m not saying the quality is comparable. These guys were different class. But it’s the depth of competition that is starting to remind me of better times at the club.

We all knew the Beale was going to have to oversee a major rebuild in this transfer window. But, as every day goes by, another name seems to pop up, another bid goes in, another bow is added to Beale’s attacking options.

By my calculations, now Abdallah Sima has signed a loan deal from Brighton, Beale will have a total of 12 forward-thinking players all fighting for four positions in his starting XI.

That could soon become 13 or maybe even 14 if he gets his way in the ongoing negotiations for Cyriel Dessers and Danilo. If one or both of these strikers is brought in