If there’s anyone who can sympathise with what Ianis Hagi is going through as he battles to resurrect his Rangers career, it’s Ian Durrant.
At the age of just 21, the then Ibrox kid had the world at his feet. The year was 1988 and a time when Scottish players rarely ventured any further than the white cliffs of Dover when looking to further their careers.
But such was the prodigious Rangers midfield playmaker’s obvious ability, he had clubs from across Europe tracking his development. Any plans this generational talent had for the future, however, were wiped out in one brutal Pittodrie flashpoint as a wild challenge from Aberdeen’s Neil Simpson wrecked his knee, putting him out of action for almost three years.
When he did finally return, Durrant himself admits he was never quite the same player.
But that didn’t stop him going on to make a worthwhile contribution to the Ibrox cause, eventually leaving Gers a decade later with 13 major medals and his status as a nine-in-a-row hero secured. And it’s that lesson Durrant wants Hagi to bare in mind as he finally looks to get his own Gers career back up and running.
The 26-year-old suffered a similarly devastating knee injury back in January 2022. A 12-month lay-off was followed by a stint to Spain on loan before he was recalled to Ibrox over the summer. It’s only now, though, that he can look to make a mark on Philippe Clement’s team having had his reintroduction to the Gers fold delayed by a contract row, Euro ineligibility and suspension.
But Durrant certainly isn’t writing Hagi off yet after watching the attacker clock up and an assist and a 90-minute shift for Romania this week.
He said: “Of course I have sympathy for Ianis. He had a hard time at the start of the season not being in the squad. But I saw him play for Romania during the week and he was good. The manager knows now he can call on him and he’s getting fitter and fitter. I think he will want more game time.
“Unfortunately he came back and got sent off against St Johnstone. Maybe that was down to a bit of an unneeded adrenaline. But we like to see that passion. He’s got plenty of that. I remember playing against his dad, who wasn’t a bad player either! The manager needs everybody. If we get Hagi back fit and well, then it’ll bode well for Rangers.”
But Durrant was speaking from experience as he warned the Ibrox support they might have to be prepared to see a different player to the one who was a key figure during their 2021 title-winning campaign. Asked if he ever got back to being the player he was before that fateful day at Pittodrie, Durrant said: “Never.
“I had to change my game dramatically, from being a box-to-box player to something else. But I never lost the desire to play football again. That’s the main thing. As long as you’ve got that desire to go and play and stick that badge on every week, then you’ll get there. It takes its time.
“Ianis will have the best equipment here. I was looked after by old Doc Cruikshank. Graeme Souness, Walter Smith. They made sure there was no stone unturned in terms of me getting back playing again. It was hard, but I got there. But I was a different player to the one I was before injury.
“I knew I couldn’t be the impact player I was in terms of running strength. I adapted, I changed my game and I worked at it. I got injured at 21 so a lot of years I lost. Of course you could feel sorry for yourself, but I wasn’t given the opportunity because I was surrounded by great people. Winners. Graeme Souness, Walter Smith, Ally McCoist, Davie Cooper. Experienced boys.
“There are dark days but they pull you through because they’ve got your back. They know how desperate you are to be playing again. I had the great support of the fans. I remember my comeback game, there could have been 30,000 there. It’s incredible. That’s what it was and I never lost that affinity.
“We need to get back to that. The team just now needs to get back to their affinity and pleasing the fans. We’re all hurt. But they can only stop the hurting if you start playing on the pitch and that’s what the fans are crying for.”
It might be dark days at Ibrox right now with Clement’s team languishing nine points off Celtic and Aberdeen. But Durrant remembers when things were even worse. His first two seasons in the Gers first-team saw them finish fourth and fifth under Jock Wallace.
Durrant added: “Of all the managers I worked under here at Ibrox, Jock had the roughest ride because a lot of money was being put into the stadium. So there wasn’t money to spend on the squad. That meant they had to go fishing in a pond that wasn’t appropriate for Rangers.
“The great thing about that for myself, Derek Ferguson, Hugh Burns, Robert Fleck, we were four young players who all broke into the Rangers team and stayed there. But Jock was unlucky again, because after that Rangers went down a different route with Graeme Souness coming in. He got all the money that Big Jock didn’t, which was a shame for Jock.
“It was hard, because prior to Jock coming back, he’d won two trebles, had been part of the folklore of 1972 and the Cup Winners’ Cup. Knowing how passionate the gaffer was about the club, it would have hurt him every bit as much. The current manager’s had a wee tough spell of late too.
“I’ve met Philippe a few times. He’s got a bit about him that I like. But he’s had a lot of bad injuries to important players. Hopefully now we can get them back and they can go on to show how good they are. You’ve got to react in a positive manner and it’s winning cups, winning leagues. That’s what matters at Rangers.”
Rangers legend Ian Durrant was speaking as he launched a new Rangers Lotto campaign for The Rangers Youth Development Company at Ibrox.
RYDC are selling signed Rangers Legends prints, mugs, coasters and Christmas decorations and fans can contact RYDC on 0141 427 4914 or browse the online store at www.rydc.co.uk to place an order. Profit from their products is donated to the Rangers Academy and more than £11.5million has been generated so far.