Ryan Jack's new Rangers contract hinges on Steve Clarke chat as Beale gets set to revamp engine room - Barry Ferguson

Ryan Jack has got a big conversation coming up with Michael Beale as he looks to sort out his Rangers future. But perhaps he also needs to sit down and have a big talk with Steve Clarke as well.

Beale has certainly made it clear he wants to get the midfielder tied down on a new deal before it runs out in the summer. A lot of attention has been on wee Nico Raskin since his arrival and he certainly looks the part. But for me a lot of the credit for the way the team has responded to losing the Viaplay Cup Final to Celtic has to go Jacko.

Having him sitting there in the anchor role, protecting and pushing has allowed the likes of Raskin and Todd Cantwell the security and freedom to do their thing. However, the ability he has is no secret. We’ve long known that Ryan Jack is a quality footballer. The only doubts we’ve had about him is over his durability when it comes to injuries.

He was obviously out for a year but when he came back he was incredible on that run to Seville. There’s been a few more niggles this season but we’re starting to see him back to his very best in the past week or so.

Beale has spoken about the need to manage his minutes, as he did when he left Ryan out for the Scottish Cup game with Raith Rovers. That’s where the chat with Steve Clarke might have to come in.

I saw a few Rangers fans raising concerns about the fact Ryan has been included in next week’s Scotland squad for the games with Cyprus and Spain. Given that injury track record, they’d rather he wasn’t involved.

Ryan is 31 now and I certainly know from my own career how important getting the proper rest was. By the time I’d reached the final stages of my career I’d had to scale back a lot of what I did in training.

If we played on a