When Nathan Patterson moved to Everton it signalled a change in how Rangers players were seen by those with deeper pockets than our own, no longer could our best young talent be picked up for a pittance.
Calvin Bassey and Joe Aribo followed for sizeable fees and we are now in a good place financially as a result. Arguably, the hardest part has been replacing three players who were such integral members of the first-team squad.
Nirvana would be having academy players step up and fill their boots and in Leon King, Adam Devine and Alex Lowry, it could be argued that we have, although they have a long way to go yet before they can be considered as important.
Speaking to the Sunday Mail, Patterson revealed that he felt that he left Ibrox just as he was getting started but that he harbours ambitions of one day returning to the club where it all began:
“Of course I’d love to go back to Rangers later on in my career and finish what I started. It would be great to finish at Ibrox. It’s where I started off my career so it would be nice to play in front of those fans again.
“There’s a bit of unfinished business for me. I was involved in 55 but I’d like to go back and get more titles.
“I went to Seville last summer for the Europa League Final and hoped they could win it but they just fell short. Just seeing Rangers in a European final again was massive, though, and it shows how far the club has come.
“But right now, I’m really happy at Everton and want to continue to progress here and I’m fully focused on doing well at Goodison.”
Patterson – whose fee could eventually rise to £16million – is the poster boy for our academy since it was taken seriously from around 2015, proof that the pathway works and that, if you take your chance, you will not only go on to be a regular in the first-team but that clubs in the Premier League will sit up and take notice.
That the Everton right-back has gone on to show that he was worth every penny only serves to benefit Rangers because Ross Wilson can point to him as a marker for the next players coming through.
The news that Leon King is set to sign a long-term contract extension is great news for the club because, like Patterson, there have been plenty of clubs from down south sniffing about, now, if they want him, they’ll have to dig just as deep as Everton did.