ãSteven Gerrard has publicly urged Rangers to bring Ryan Jack back into the fold, describing his former midfielder as a “proper player” after it emerged the 34-year-old free agent has been training at Auchenhowie while he searches for his next club.
The comment came in response to a Rangers fan page sharing the news of Jack’s return to the club’s training facilities, with Gerrard writing simply: “Put him in the middle. Proper player.” It is a brief message, but a pointed one from a manager who counted on Jack repeatedly during the most successful spell of his Ibrox tenure, and it has been enough to reignite speculation over whether the midfielder’s Rangers story might yet have a final chapter.
Jack left Turkish side Esenler Erokspor this summer at the end of his contract and has spent the intervening months working to overcome injury problems that hampered much of his time abroad. Speaking on the Go Radio Football Show, he explained his decision to base his fitness work at his old club rather than elsewhere: “It is pretty much out of the way [the injury]. It is just this time of season when you are out of contract, you just want to keep fit. I am just into the Rangers training ground working away with the physio and performance staff and also doing some gym work, so yeah, feeling good.”
Reflecting more broadly on his situation, Jack — who had been training alone earlier in the summer before Rangers opened their doors to him — struck a relaxed tone about his search for a new club. “I’ve just been away for two years so I wanted to come back and enjoy my time with the family, but I’m training hard by myself and just want to see what the next challenge is.” Notably, Jack also weighed in on the current mood at Ibrox, telling Go Radio that the narrative around Derek McInnes has shifted markedly after back-to-back Old Firm wins over Celtic, with the pressure now sitting squarely on Martin O’Neill’s shoulders at Parkhead rather than on McInnes — the comments of a player who, despite his free-agent status, remains closely tuned in to life at his old club.
Jack’s history at Rangers gives Gerrard’s endorsement its weight. The Aberdeen academy graduate joined Rangers in 2017 and went on to make more than 200 appearances across a seven-year spell, including 131 Scottish Premiership matches and 12 goals in all competitions. He was a regular fixture in the side that ended Celtic’s domestic dominance by winning the 2020-21 Scottish Premiership title under Gerrard — the club’s first league championship in a decade — and added a Scottish Cup winner’s medal in 2021-22 before eventually departing Ibrox. Before Rangers, Jack had already established himself as a first-team regular at Aberdeen, making 199 official appearances for the Dons between 2010 and 2017 and winning the Scottish League Cup in 2013-14, a trophy lifted under a management setup that, at various points, included current Rangers boss Derek McInnes. Internationally, Jack has earned 20 caps for Scotland, underlining a career built on the kind of reliable, combative central-midfield performances that made him a trusted lieutenant for two different Ibrox regimes.
That dual connection — a title-winning spell under Gerrard and prior management ties to McInnes at Pittodrie — is precisely why the idea of a reunion has captured attention, however unlikely a formal deal may currently be.
For all the warmth of Gerrard’s message, reporting from within the Rangers press pack has been careful to separate personal sentiment from transfer reality. Read Rangers has indicated Jack is not currently on the club’s radar in any transfer sense, and there is no suggestion a new contract is being prepared under McInnes. The arrangement, as described by sources close to the club, is understood to be exactly what it appears: Rangers simply extending training facilities and medical support to a popular former player who remains a well-liked figure around Auchenhowie, rather than the first step toward a concrete return.
The football rationale for restraint is fairly straightforward. Rangers’ midfield department is well stocked under McInnes, to the point that the club has been loaning out younger midfield options rather than searching for further additions in that area. Barring an unexpected injury crisis in the centre of the park, there is little obvious footballing need to add a 34-year-old free agent to the group — however fondly he is remembered, and however much respect his old manager continues to have for him. Rangers have, in the same period, been reported as exploring a separate and considerably higher-profile midfield move: contact with Arsenal over the possibility of a loan for highly rated teenager Max Dowman, a deal that — if it were to progress — would sit at the opposite end of the market from anything involving Jack.
None of that necessarily rules out a low-cost, short-term arrangement further down the line, particularly given the goodwill clearly still directed Jack’s way by both fans and a former manager as significant as Gerrard. But for now, the story is best understood as a heartfelt public tribute rather than the opening move of a transfer saga: a reminder of how fondly Jack’s title-winning contribution is remembered at Ibrox, arriving at a moment when Rangers’ current midfield options are not short of depth. Jack, for his part, continues his search for a new club from the most familiar surroundings available to him, with Rangers’ physios and performance staff keeping him ready for whatever comes next — even if, for now, that opportunity looks unlikely to come from Ibrox itself.
