Without a first team start this season Barry Ferguson drools over his Ibrox heir

After four substitute appearances since the turn of the year Barry Ferguson is convinced that Bailey Rice is his Ibrox heir.

The teenager was signed from Motherwell in July 2022 and instantly given the super starlet treatment, while he toiled to displace Scott Arfield, Ryan Jack, John Lundstram and Kieran Dowell his Fir Park team-mate Lennon Miller was going from strength to strength.

During the summer Connor Barron was signed from Aberdeen to ‘pure boss it and put Callum McGregor in his place’ with Rice barely an afterthought for Phil Clement.

With no January transfer funds and Barron rediscovering his Aberdeen form Clement has been forced to look at Rice, right on cue Ferguson and the other messengers are drooling over the starlet following 30 minutes against Fraserburgh, 45 minutes at Manchester United and an outstanding 45 minutes against Ross County.

After recalling his own heroic battle to break into Dick Advocaat’s EBT All Stars, Ferguson explains the brilliance of Rice to Daily Record readers:

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.

A midfield of Rice, Barron and Cameron might be uber-staunch but they are unlikely to shift many Season Tickets with Celtic looking very likely to be #goingfor56 next season.