There are some days that stand out in the memory more than others. And often it involves the moment you realise you’re in the presence of someone very special.

For example, I’ll never forget the morning I turned up at Auchenhowie and clapped eyes for the first time on our latest new signing. Rangers had paid around £4m to Utrecht for a striker I had never even heard of before. But half an hour on the training pitch with Michael Mols later and I realised we had a potential superstar on our hands.

I knew nothing about the guy until that morning. But I watched him closely in that first session – the way he took the ball in and then spun on a sixpence, the way he finished inside the penalty box – and I thought to myself, ‘What a player we’ve got here!’. I know Mikey won’t mind me saying this but if he hadn’t picked up such a terrible injury in his first season away to Bayern Munich then he would have gone to move to a top four club in the English Premier League.

For those five months, he was without doubt the best striker I ever played with. For me, Mikey could have gone on to become one of the best strikers anywhere in British football. Trust me, he was that good.

So, as much as I don’t want to make any direct comparisons or to stick an unrealistic label on anyone’s back, I have to admit I’m getting Mikey Mols flashbacks every time I see Hamza Igamane pull on a Rangers shirt.

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not for one minute saying that Igamane is on the same level as Michael was at his peak. There’s a long, long way for the young man to go before he gets there. But I do see glimpses of Michael every time I watch Igamane play. The wee flicks, the mad things he does – he’ll chest the ball, keep it up four times on his head and then backheel it somebody – and the clinical way he finishes chances in front of goal.

Hamza Igamane scores to make it 1-0

The boy is a natural and I can’t get enough of watching the way he goes about his business. It shows me has confidence in his own ability and that he genuinely loves being out there on a football pitch.

I enjoy his unpredictability. You just don’t have a clue what he’s going to do next or where he’s going to pop up and that must make him a defender’s nightmare to play against. He’s certainly not your average No.9. And that’s probably why I see the comparisons with Mikey.

He was another who drifted into unexpected positions, linked up with the midfield and would roll his foot over the ball with that trademark turn. Michael was a maverick. A true one of a kind. And, from what I’ve seen over the last month or so, Igamane has the potential to become something similar. In his very own way.

People expect a centre forward to operate in between the sticks and I get that. But Igamane plays like a free spirit and that makes him such a handful. He floats into areas, is difficult to pick up and offers something totally different. In my opinion, he’s still raw like a diamond in the dirt. I genuinely believe there is loads of improvement to come from him the more his game is polished. But if he continues to improve at his current rate then Rangers are going to have a player worth a small fortune in the transfer market.

For the time being it’s a case of enjoying him for as long as he’s still at the club because he may not be around for all that long. Of course, Rangers supporters won’t want to hear that and I’m in the same boat. When a talent as exciting as this comes around the last thing you think about is letting him go again.

In an ideal world Igamane is the kind of player you build a team around for years and years to come. But there has to be a sense of realism where the club’s current position is concerned. Rangers are a selling club and, like it or not, that means they may soon be made an offer which they can’t possibly turn down.

Just to be clear, I don’t think that’ll happen during the January transfer window. That would be way too soon. In my mind I’d love to see him stay for the rest of this season and maybe another one after that. But, again, it’s important to remain realistic. And the realist inside me expects some big bids to start arriving over the coming summer.

Let’s not forget, this is a kid Rangers signed for £1.5m. If someone out there is prepared to pay around £10m – or maybe even more than that – for him within 12 months, then that’s exactly the model Rangers need. The challenge at that point is to have already identified the next Igamane and to have him lined up as the Moroccan’s replacement.

That’s what new chief executive Patrick Stewart will be demanding from the football department now that he’s ordered a review of what’s going on at the training centre. If he’s going to turn things around and close the financial gap then he needs that place to become a production line.

Yes, Rangers have done well in recent times by bringing in the likes of Calvin Bassey and Joe Aribo for a snip and then selling them on for seriously big bucks. But they were the exception rather than the rule.

Just look at the way Alfredo Morelos and Ryan Kent were subsequently able to run down their contracts and leave for nothing when, had they been sold at the right time, they would have raked in millions and millions of pounds. So, if Igamane is to be the next player to leave for a huge profit, his sale needs to be the start of a new way forward. This needs to become a regular occurrence, year on year. And, as hard as that may be for fans to stomach, it’s also something for them to get excited about at the same time. If the talent spotters are doing their jobs right, then the supporters are going to get the chance to see a lot of quality youngsters coming through the ranks.

They’d settle for that if they were promised an Igamane every season. On Thursday night Igamane will get the chance to showcase what he’s all about in front of more than 70,000 people against Manchester United at Old Trafford. I fully expect him to make the most of it.

That’s why I suspect he might not be hanging around in Scottish football for all that much longer. Rangers fans should simply enjoy him while they can.

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