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Danny Wilson was proud to win trophies as a teenager during Walter Smith’s second spell at Rangers and the classy defender was thrilled to rejoin the Light Blues in 2015 following his move to Liverpool.
Wilson, who is 34 today, burst onto the scene in 2009/10 and played his part in a League Cup and League-winning squad.
The Academy graduate made his debut in a 3-1 win at Dens Park in October 2009 and never looked back as he partnered David Weir for the rest of the season.
It was a meteoric rise for Danny and he coped with the pressure of performing at the highest level week in, week out admirably.
He won the Scottish Football Writers’ Young Player of the Year Award and the Scottish PFA Young Player of the Year Award following a stellar spell in blue then Liverpool came calling for him after a whirlwind debut campaign.
He returned to Ibrox for a second spell under Mark Warburton and spent almost 3 more years with the club.
He admits he would have seen out his career with Rangers but was sold to Colorado Rapids in January 2018 and built a new life for himself across the Atlantic in 6 seasons with the MLS side.
The Scotland international admits he was gutted to leave Rangers twice but remains immensely proud of his career achievements, which includes a spell at Anfield, captaining Hearts and helping Livingston back to the top-flight.
In a wide-ranging interview as he showed his support for The Rangers Youth Development Company – who have donated more than £12 million to the Academy so far – Danny reflects on his time in Glasgow and life after leaving the Light Blues.
He said: “When I first joined Rangers I was training on Monday nights and guys like Billy Marshall and Billy Duncanson were my coaches.
“Then when I started coming through the Academy my first coach was Bobby Russell then briefly it was Sandy Clark and after that Stevie Wright took over.
“I also worked with Jim Sinclair, Tommy Wilson and Billy Kirkwood so I had a whole array of coaches who helped me and apologies if I missed any out.
“There were a lot of good people within the Academy system at that time and I was very fortunate to learn from them.
“Standards and a winning mentality is drummed into you from a young age. Part of your development at Rangers is you have to win.
“I still think that that’s so important, you have to work as hard as you can to win. I’ve used those standards and I’ve always worked hard throughout my career and that’ll never change.
“When I was coming through, I was told how to behave and how to act.
“Not just the standards of playing, it’s the standards of representing the club and they were always so high.
“You are representing the football club first and foremost and I had a great grounding from very early on.
“People like John Greig, Sandy Jardine, Walter Smith, Ally McCoist and Ian Durrant knew what playing for Rangers and managing the club was all about and it was great to learn from them.
“We knew John had a statue at Ibrox and he would sit with us and tell us his old stories. He would pass on his experiences and it was a really special thing. We were lucky to have that.
“We had people who were genuine success stories at Rangers and some like John and Sandy who epitomised the standards.
“Actually listening to them and being around them was really important for all the young players when I was there.
“I made my first-team debut in a 3-1 win at Dundee and it was a special moment for me.
“You strive to get into that position, but you never know if it will actually come, so I was very fortunate when it did.
“I don’t even know if I was ready to be perfectly honest, but you try to make yourself as ready as you possibly can.
“This is what you’ve been waiting for but you have to keep working hard to go and do it again and again and again.
“The standards are so high that you might only get one chance but fortunately for me I was able to stay in for a period of time.
“After a run of games, you feel more comfortable and I was lucky as I was in a team surrounded by seasoned international footballers.
“It was easier because I was surrounded by experience and quality and all I had to do was just try and focus on doing the job to the best of my ability.
“Everybody around me would take care of their own performances.
“I was very fortunate to step into that environment at the right time and work with guys like Walter, Ally and Durranty – legends of the football club.
“It was such a successful environment and I was lucky enough to make my debut at that time.
“I was learning every day in training and it was such a good spell. I started to feel more like a first-team player and really enjoyed it.
“Ally used to take part in training games so I would be up against him. He would try and rough me up because I was a skinny teenager at that point and he would give me great advice.
“It was a really great time and I’m very fortunate because if I came through at another time I wouldn’t have had those people around me.
“So I’m very, very thankful to them and the players I played with.
“I was playing with defenders like Davie Weir and Sasa Papac and I learned a lot.
“A lot was made of the age gap between Davie and me but it worked and he was a fantastic player. There was a real calmness about his approach.
“He was so helpful to me and there were so many other players around me who were helpful and I respected every single one of them.
“As a young player, I wanted to earn their respect. You can’t get too big for your boots and I was just trying to do my job for the team.
“I always believed that if I was given a chance to play I would do okay.
“You never really know until you’re in that scenario, but I went into that team and felt I had something to contribute and I played in some really good games and played well.
“I was still a teenager and I knew if Rangers were at full strength at that time, I wasn’t playing.
“I was okay with that because I knew what my role was in the team.
“I was very fortunate at the time as I was young and there wasn’t a whole lot of expectation on me.
“Obviously, the expectation grows the more you play, but I was able to kind of be dipped in and out of that team and was just happy to contribute if and when needed.
“Walter never used to name the team too far in advance. I would maybe have an idea that I was playing but I never really knew for definite until probably about an hour and a half before the game started.
“That was probably ideal because I didn’t have the time to get nervous but he had faith in me
“When I got sent off against St Mirren in the League Cup Final I was thinking I might not play again for a bit yeah but then we played the next Wednesday night I was straight back in.
“We won the cup then lost at Dundee Utd then I scored the next weekend against Hearts so you learn how quickly time goes in football.
“He believed in me to stick with me after the red card at Hampden. That was a real learning experience.
“Kevin and I were both send off and the game was so tight. Fortunately for us, the players who were on the pitch won it for us and it was a real relief and a real happiness that the boys got it done.
“There was a winning mentality and it was an incredible win with 9 men.
“I was probably spoiled too early in my career as I worked with the best.
“You wouldn’t see many more like Walter now as the game has changed so much. That style of manager is out the game.
“It was a great time for me to be part of a cup and league winning side – I was spoiled because that was my first six months in football.
“I was a first-team regular playing at one of the biggest clubs in the country and it doesn’t get much better than that.
“I was trying to stay grounded with it, but you know, you can get carried away a wee bit as well.
“You just can’t really believe it’s happening so I made the conscious decision not to stay in Glasgow as I just try to stay a wee bit quieter.
“It was a whirlwind and fantastic memories.
“That summer I left for Liverpool but my preference would have been to stay at Rangers as I felt it was the best place for me to continue my development.
“I spoke to Walter about it and he told me if I stayed I wouldn’t play every single week and he didn’t know if he was going to do another season.
“That was fair and I respected that.
“Some players were sold and I was one who the club got money for but that’s just the way it goes.
“It’s a business at the end of the day. Selfishly, though, I would have liked to stay a wee bit longer but I had the opportunity to move to Liverpool so I knew I was moving to a good club.
“In other circumstances, I would have stayed at Rangers for at least a few more years. That would have been my plan.
“I felt it was the right place for me to continue my growth as a player and a person but unfortunately it wasn’t to be.
“I didn’t want to leave Rangers and I don’t want to sound disrespectful to Liverpool because they couldn’t have treated me any better.
“They were fantastic to deal with everything there was first class.
“I got to work under some great coaches and play with some fantastic players but I would probably have been better going there a couple of years down the line.
“I still had some great times there, probably just not as many as I would have hoped for.
“I had been playing and wining trophies at Rangers and then suddenly I go to Liverpool and I’m not playing every week.
“It was a different role for me and with the benefit of experience now, I probably should have just embraced it a wee bit more.
“It was a great time and I wish I could have made more of it and I probably should have made more of it. It was a disappointment that I didn’t, but it’s just the way it was and I don’t regret it in terms of making the move there.
“When I came back to Rangers a couple of years later. I was desperate to return. That’s where I wanted to be because of the way things had ended the first time.
“I kept asking my agent if we can get back to Rangers and it took a wee bit longer than I’d hoped but I was delighted to come back when I did.
“The demands didn’t change and I don’t think demands will ever change.
“The goal was to return Rangers to the top of Scottish football.
“We were playing catch-up in the Championship at that time but the signs were positive and good players were recruited.
“We knew the trajectory we were on and we were moving in the right direction and we got back to the Premier League.
“Obviously you hope things will continue to improve from there and it took a wee bit longer than probably everybody hoped it would.
“At Rangers you don’t always get that time but I was delighted to come back and I would have loved to have stayed longer in the second spell but that’s football unfortunately.
“We still had great moments, like beating Celtic at Hampden to get us to the Scottish Cup Final.
“I have a lot of proud memories and I was able to play for the club so many times, more than you can probably dream of as a young player, and those memories will stay with me forever.
“Again, I was hoping to stay at Rangers longer and there were talks about a new contract but that changed.
“I was in the last six months of my contract and there was interest in me from down south and from a couple of teams in America.
“Colorado agreed a fee to take me in the January and my last experiences with Rangers were scoring in a win against Motherwell at Ibrox at Christmas then finishing the game as the captain at Celtic Park when Bruno Alves went off injured.
“I don’t mind saying it took me a long time to get over that as I was so desperate to return to Rangers after I left.
“I had a hangover from leaving for probably a good year afterwards as it was a place I still desperately wanted to be.
“Unfortunately, it took too long in my second spell to get to a consistent level and I had a couple of injuries so I was never quite at 100%.
“But to leave again was gutting, it was really gutting, it was heartbreaking at the time but that’s football.
“When you play for Colorado Rapids, you’re playing for a sport that’s probably at best fourth or fifth most followed in that state, or even in the country.
“You can kind of fly under the radar and you can go about your business quietly, which was good for me as I had a young family at that time.
“When you’re at Rangers it’s all-consuming, it’s all so intense and then you go into an environment in Colorado. Which is a great environment and is a really good place to go and play, but the same demands are not there.
“It was something I’m very glad I experienced though.
“It was somewhere I called home for six years and I met some really great people at the club. We had some tough times but we had some really good times as well.
“With Rangers, you’re such a small part of the history in terms of how long the club’s been going. Whereas with Colorado, I joined in 2018 and the club had only been around since 1996.
“I can say though that I thoroughly enjoyed it once I settled and I got a good scenario out of leaving Rangers – even though I didn’t want it that time.
“Now I’m back in Scotland at Livingston, which is my hometown club, and I’m really enjoying it.
“I really enjoy working with David Martindale and his staff, and working with the group of players we have.
“I’ll be 34 at the end of the year and it’s probably the first time in football where I’ve not looked too far ahead.
“I’m just enjoying being in the moment, being present with it and just enjoying the games.
“A lot of Rangers Academy players have links to Livingston too. Andy Shinnie, Danny Finlayson and Jamie Brandon and we had Robbie Fraser and Stephen Kelly last season.
“I’ve recently just started doing my B License and Gregg Wylde is on my coaching course.
“I want to do it the right way and start from the bottom and work my way up. I won’t cut any corners and cheat the process but I feel like I’ve got the bug for it.
“Looking back, I’ve been fortunate to play for the clubs I have. Even when I went to Hearts, I had a fantastic time and was captain there for two years and did a lot of growing there as well.
“So, I’ve been fortunate to have great experiences in football, hopefully I’ll have some more before I finish up.”
Danny’s career development was assisted by annual RYDC donations to the Rangers Academy and more than £12 million has already been provided.
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