HAGI CAN PULL THE STRINGS

I'd forgotten all about lanis until he appeared on my screen wearing a tea cosy... he can still come to boil at Gers

- BARRY FERGUSON

I MUST be honest, I'd almost forgotten all about him.

It wasn't until the Euros began in Germany and I saw him representing his country that I remembered Ianis Hagi is still actually a Rangers player.

He's been out of the picture for so long, out injured for a year then sent on loan to Alaves in Spain last summer, that he slipped my mind completely.

Yet there he was playing in the quarter-finals against the Netherlands, sticking out like a sore thumb with a string tea cosy on his head, as the last Premiership player still standing at the tournament.

Philippe Clement will have been watching every minute and the manager might have seen enough to think he could have a major asset back on his hands.

The least said about last summer's botched rebuild under Michael Beale the better but even at the time I remember thinking the rush to push Hagi out of the door was a little strange.

Despite the wave of new arrivals the Romanian even featured in a couple of Beale's pre-season games and he was actually one of the few players who caught my eye.

Hagi had returned to action after 12 months of rehab towards the end of the previous campaign and looked rusty in the limited game time he was given. That was completely understandable after spending so long on the sidelines.

But he obviously worked his socks off over the summer because he looked so much sharper and stronger when the pre-season stuff began. That told me a great deal about his strength of character and his desire to get back wearing a Rangers shirt.