What was almost as interesting as Davide Ancelotti being linked with the Rangers job earlier in the week was where the news came from.

Indeed, it became clear pretty quickly that his name had not been leaked from within the Ibrox club.

The news reports, which sparked a series of urgent phone calls from people attempting to verify the information, originated from Spain where Davide Ancelotti is currently working with his father, Carlo Ancelotti, at Real Madrid.

The question remains: who leaked the information? While Rangers have not yet finalized their choice, Davide seems to play a role in their ongoing discussions.

Well, if you are trying to test the water, or stir up some interest in your services, then it’s no bad thing to be linked with a high-profile job. 

Davide Ancelotti with father Carlo in the Real Madrid dugout during clash with Barcelona

Rangers haven’t settled on a new manager yet, but David Ancelotti seems to have been part of their conversations

It will be interesting to see whether David Ancelotti keeps working alongside his father with Brazil or if another job will present itself

And while Rangers are not top-tier in European football, they are still a big enough club to generate headlines across the continent.

This wouldn’t be the first instance of an agent or representative leveraging the Old Firm clubs this way. A quick glance at the various names associated with both clubs during any transfer period, including this week, illustrates the point.

So it will be interesting to watch, for many reasons, what occurs next. Perhaps Ancelotti will be the next manager of Rangers. Maybe he will continue to work alongside his father. Or, who knows, another job offer may present itself and just be too good to turn down.

Lafferty would love to add the Junior Cup to his glittering array of silverware

As a man who has won the Scottish title three times, the League Cup twice and the Scottish Cup once, and who has graced the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League as well as a European Championships, you might think Kyle Lafferty has pretty much done everything in football.

But this weekend he will be champing at the bit to move one step closer to another shot at silverware late in his career — and don’t think for one minute it wouldn’t be as sweet for the 37-year-old as all the others that went before.

Lafferty will line up for Johnstone Burgh on Sunday as they seek to overturn a 1-0 first-leg deficit against Largs Thistle in the second leg of their Scottish Junior Cup semi-final. 

It might seem like a far cry from the days when he was the scourge of Celtic in Old Firm combat or Northern Ireland’s hero on the international stage, but the prospect of bringing silverware to his seventh-tier side will be just as enticing for a man who has also endured his fair share of lows to go with the glittering highs.

Kyle Lafferty was a regular winner of trophies during his successful spell with Rangers

Former Rangers star Lafferty enjoys a quick snack while attending a Johnstone Burgh game

Lafferty, above centre, in action for Johnstone Burgh, the team he’s helped reach the Scottish Junior Cup semi-finals

Having banged in goals in Italy, Switzerland, Turkey, Norway and Cyprus as well as all across the UK, Lafferty’s decision to play out his days in the West of Scotland League took many by surprise when he pitched up at Keanie Park back in 2023.

Injury curtailed his involvement for most of his debut season as a side also featuring the likes of Graeme Dorrans and Jason Naismith earned promotion from the West of Scotland First Division. 

However, even with Lafferty back to fitness for the bulk of this term, the Burgh have been miles off the pace set by runaway Premier Division champions Clydebank this season and will look to invest again to try to win promotion to the Lowland League next season.

To lift the Junior Cup, though, would propel Lafferty to a unique place in the Scottish game given his senior accomplishments. And, having wrestled with gambling addiction and depression since those days when cup conquests were commonplace with Rangers, you can bet he would glean extra satisfaction from tucking this trophy away so late is his career.

Johnstone Burgh are two-time winners of the iconic competition, but you have to go all the way back to 1968 for their last triumph. 

They were clearly stung by their 1-0 home defeat to a Largs side who sit six places below them in their division, and they served notice of their intentions with a 5-0 win over the same opposition at the same venue on league duty when the sides met again at the start of the month.

The return leg at Barrfields Park on Sunday — strangely, a month after the first encounter — is an all-ticket affair and it should be a corker. Lafferty has been struggling for fitness since a man-of-the-match display against Benburb a fortnight ago, but it feels written in the stars that he will have a say in this one.

His presence at The Burgh over the last two years won’t have come cheap. This is his opportunity to pay it all back in spades.

Empty seats said it all at Ibrox … the supporters can’t be taken for granted

For all their faults, on and off the pitch, during this long period of underachievement, it is fair to say one thing about Rangers: they are imaginative.

How else to explain the official attendance registered by the Ibrox club for Sunday’s Premiership match against Aberdeen, when Barry Ferguson claimed his first home win as interim manager?

Having failed to secure victory in any of their previous seven matches at Ibrox, Rangers will not have been surprised to see several thousand empty seats for a match that had meaning only for the visitors.

By the time Jefte was netting the last goal in a convincing 4-0 victory, it had all the atmosphere of a pre-season friendly, so sparse was the crowd that remained.

Jefte celebrates his late goal against Aberdeen at Ibrox amid a backdrop of empty seats

And yet, Rangers somehow managed to calculate that 50,343 people had been inside the Govan ground, much to the amusement of journalists, fans and indeed those who had watched on television.

In releasing that figure, the club could argue that they were referring to tickets sold, rather than bums on seats. Plenty of season-ticket holders doubtless found better things to do on a sunny, Sunday afternoon.

But the official attendance obscured a deeper truth: that Rangers supporters are embarrassed by a disaster of a season, fed up waiting for change and willing to vote with their feet.

They have seen the club through some pretty grim times lately, but they shouldn’t be taken for granted. It is high time the club repaid them.

Ryan Kent has found his feet at last … with Seattle Sounders in MLS 

It has taken him a while, but Ryan Kent is finally showing some of the game-changing ability that he was known for at Rangers.

The 28-year-old winger, now with Seattle Sounders, lost his way after leaving the Ibrox club nearly two years ago.

A four-year deal with Fenerbahce quickly turned sour when he fell out with his first manager, Ismail Kartal, and was frozen out by his next, Jose Mourinho.

Then, when his contract with the Turkish giants was mutually terminated, he spent five months in the wilderness, struggling to find the right club.

Only when he joined Seattle in March did things start to look up, first with his debut against Nashville last month and then with two more appearances as a substitute.

In one of them, he provided two assists that captured the fans’ imagination and led his manager, Brian Schmetzer, to describe him as a ‘super-talented player’.

Ryan Kent is starting to show some scintillating form for new club Seattle Sounders

The fire looks to have started again for winger Kent after he lost some of his spark

Ryan Kent was initially a fine performer for Rangers before losing his way somewhat

Kent, for his part, admitted that it had been a long winter out of the game, so much so that he’d almost forgotten how to play. ‘My first couple of weeks, I felt like I had two right feet,’ he said.

‘But as the weeks have progressed, I’m starting to feel sharp again. I’m starting to feel good with the ball. I need to show them I can come on in games like this and make an impact, show them I’m ready to go from the start.’

Sure enough, Kent was given that start, away to Houston on Sunday, and boy did he repay them. He was instrumental in a 3-1 victory, most notably with a trademark run that set up Sounders’ third goal.

It was enough to prompt an outpouring of love from the Seattle support, many of whom have been celebrating his impact and begging him to stay for longer than the year he has agreed.

Of course, it is early yet. As Rangers fans know, Kent is a streaky player, prone to eye-catching runs of form, followed by lengthy disappearing acts.

He will never be the star Rangers hoped he would become when he cost them a reported £6.5m from Liverpool, but he has a talent, one that should have earned the Ibrox club a profit.

It seems remarkable now that they turned down a £10m offer from Leeds United in 2020. Three years later, he was able to leave for nothing, which reflected badly on Rangers’ player trading model,

As Kent sets about rebuilding his career in Major League Soccer, so must Rangers strive to do better as a business.