Hands up, I’ve never really been the patient type.

As a matter of fact, I turned 47 at the weekend and I’m still waiting to discover what the word even means. I just wish it would hurry up. So you can probably imagine what I was like as a kid at Ibrox, wondering when I would finally be given the chance to force my way into the first team and become a regular Rangers player.

Walter Smith had given me a taste of it. I had played a handful of games under the great man and, looking back, I should probably have been delighted about that given the guys he had in a squad that was pushing for Ten in a Row. But it wasn’t enough. I remember thinking to myself I wasn’t going to be satisfied with turning round to some guy in a pub in my thirties and saying, ‘You know what mate, I played 12 times for Rangers once upon a time’. No. I wasn’t going to settle for pulling on the shirt every now and then. I wanted to make it my own.

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I’ll never forget pulling up a ball and sitting on it, at the side of the training pitch, when we got the chance to watch guys like Ally McCoist, Richard Gough, Jorg Albertz, Stuart McCall, Ian Ferguson and Ian Durrant being put through their paces. I’ll be honest, I was in awe of these guys.

The rest of the young boys would be looking on too but I wasn’t interested in speaking to anyone. I just sat there. On my ball. Watching and studying everything they did. And all the while I’d be thinking to myself, ‘Wow! Just look at the way these guys go about it. That’s what it’s going to take if you want to be out there with them one day’.

But, like I say, I was never blessed with patience. So when I was out there training with them and getting the odd game here and there, I’d be straight in the ear of my youth team coaches, John Brown and John McGregor, and probably annoying the life out of them.

‘What’s going on here? When am I going to get my chance? What more do I have to do?’ And the advice they would give me in return was probably the main reason I ended up having the career that I was lucky enough to experience.

‘Listen son,’ they’d say. ‘Take your time. You’re just not quite ready yet physically or mentally. But your time is coming. So what are you going to do? Spit the dummy out or work even harder to be ready for it when it does?’ Yes I was frustrated. I wanted everything yesterday.

But I’d go away and take their words on board. I’d do some extra work in the gym. I’d make sure I impressed in every training session. I tried to run the show when I was dropped back out into the reserves. It was all about getting me ready for the moment the door opened in front of me and, now that I can look back, I can honestly say I wouldn’t have changed a single thing about it.

The education I was given at the point in my development was absolutely priceless. So when that season ended and we knew Advocaat was coming in, I realised it was my moment to reach out and grab everything I ever wanted.

I looked around that dressing room, saw guys like big Jorg, Gio van Bronckhorst and Claudio Reyna and I realised I had the fight of my life on my hands to stay in the manager’s first XI. But there was no way I was going to back down. If one of these guys wanted my shirt they were going to have to rip it out of my hands. I simply wasn’t prepared to let it go.

And the reason I bring it all up today is because I see that exact same door now opening for the likes of Bailey Rice and Findlay Curtis - two young academy graduates who are now ready to take that same pathway I did. The same goes for Clinton Nsiala and Hamza Igamane, even though they have been brought into the club more recently.

All of these young men now have the chance to make that shirt their own and the next four or five months can be the making of them as Rangers players. We’ve all seen already that Igamane has a huge future ahead of him. Nsiala is another new arrival who has stepped up and showed that he is ready for the challenge. And young Curtis looks like a very talented attacking prospect.

But, as a midfield man myself, I obviously look at Rice and can’t but get excited about this kid’s potential. Believe me, I’ve seen more than enough to be convinced that he has everything required to make the kind of impact I managed to do back in the day.

He’ll probably have been as frustrated as I was, having been dipped in and out of the first team over the last year or so. He’ll have been looking at Lennon Miller’s meteoric rise at Motherwell and wondering why he wasn’t getting the same opportunity for game time at Ibrox.

But this feels like the moment he’s been waiting for. With the likes of Kieran Dowwell and Rabbi Matondo moving on during the transfer window, Rice and Curtis can now see the light at the end of that tunnel. If I was them I’d be thinking to myself, ‘What a chance I’ve got. This is the time to make my mark’.

If I was Rice I would welcome the summer signing of Lyall Cameron from Dundee and I’d want to make sure, between now and the end of the season, the manager knows I’ll be ready to fight him for a place in the starting line up.

Obviously, things are changing. Big earners are moving on, the squad is being restructured and coming down in age. It’s not all rosy in the garden by any stretch of the imagination. But it’s created a real opportunity for some of these young guys to go out and really make a name for themselves as Rangers players.

I might not be getting any younger but I remember how it felt when that moment came around for me, as if it was yesterday. So get out there and give it everything you’ve got boys. I promise, you will never live to regret it.