Rangers are desperate to reach Champions League like Celtic but don't buy the financial imperative case - Kenny Miller

The legendary Sir Alex Ferguson used to refer to the tension-filled final stages in a title race as “squeaky bum time”.

Well I can tell you from my Rangers experiences, there would be times at the start of the season too when it would be more than just the butterflies in your stomach flapping. Kicking off your campaign with vital European qualifiers is never easy – as I found out on a couple of occasions.

I played in teams that twice fell flat coming out the blocks as we suffered those infamous defeats to Kaunas and Progres Niederkorn and they were horrible nights to be a Rangers player. The Progres setback in 2017 may not have been a Champions League eliminator like the loss in Lithuania nine years earlier but its importance was just as big to the club at a time when it was looking to rebuild.

Thankfully for Michael Beale’s side, the sense of jeopardy this time round won’t be quite as sharp as they begin their quest to reach the group stage of UEFA’s top tournament. The draw for their opening qualifier takes place a week tomorrow and Beale will go into that first leg on August 8 or 9 knowing his side are packing not one but two parachutes.

Defeat in the third-qualifying round or the play-offs comes with a guaranteed soft landing in the Europa League group stage and, for me, that should take so much of the pressure off the lads. I wish we’d had the same back in 2008. I’d just rejoined the club that summer and the first leg against Kaunas was my first game back at Ibrox since my spell at Celtic. All eyes were on me and the other boys given they’d reached the UEFA Cup Final only a few weeks earlier.

We were expected to easily take care of Kaunas. But despite dominating in Glasgow, we just couldn’t get a goal. We were