Of the names who checked into Rangers over January, it may have been the likes of Jamie Murphy or Jason Cummings that excited supporters the most. But one player who arrived to little fanfare may just, in time, be the most valuable signing of the lot.

Scotland youth international Glenn Middleton may not yet be a household name, but according to Rangers manager Graeme Murty, one day his name will be sung from the Ibrox rafters. After coaching the 18-year-old at Norwich City, Murty is well-placed to assess his abilities and potential, and he is amazed that he has managed to prize the talented attacker away from Carrow Road.

“He’s an exciting player,” Murty said. “I’ve known him for a long time now. I coached him as a schoolboy.

“I’ll try to develop his game and try to develop him as a person. I know his mentality, his work ethic and his professionalism, and they are all of the highest order.

“I was really surprised when I heard that he was going to be able to leave the club, and a bit shocked to be perfectly honest.

“I got straight onto the phone to Craig Mulholland and we made it happen. He’s desperate to be here, he’s a passionate Rangers fan and he ticks lots of boxes.

“He’s an exciting, pacy, left-footed player who can beat people and he can finish as well.

“The platform now is here for him to go and accelerate if he can. I’ve said to all the young players that if they are good enough, they can push into the first-team squad and see what it is actually like to be a Rangers player.

“We’ve done that with Ross McCrorie and with Aiden Wilson at times, and David Bates, even though he wasn’t ours is still a young player.

“We have to make sure the players see a pathway. He’s just a young player that we like, and that has an opportunity to go and showcase his talents at a big club.”

Middleton trained with the Rangers first-team on Thursday for the first time, but he will initially be part of the under-23 squad as he acclimatises to his new surroundings and adapts to how his manager likes his team to play the game.

That’s not to say that his promotion to the first-team picture will be hampered by his age.

"If he's ready I certainly won't shy in dragging any of them round to train with the first team because I want people who are hungry and desperate to do well, and there should be no one more hungry and desperate to do well than a young player coming to train with the first-team,” said Murty.

"It's working with him and understanding his attributes and when best to deploy them, when best to be safe and secure with the ball, when best to take someone on and be explosive. But Glenn knows that. That's part of his game we have been developing since I've known him.

“At the younger age groups, he is so quick and powerful, he can go past people, but now it won't be if I can, it's when I went to, when's right to deploy that weapon that he has. He understands that senior football becomes more about decision-making than raw attributes, and that part of learning won't be in the next six months, it will be in the next six years of his life.”

A young Scot with explosive pace who possesses a trick or two. Sound familiar? For the last few years, it has been Olly Burke who has saddled the expectations of being the nation’s next great white hope.

Despite the similarities between the styles of the players, Murty is keen for Middleton to avoid such comparisons, and the subsequent burden of expectation.

"That's a big name to saddle a young player with,” he said. “There are a number of our young players that have potential to get in the first-team, and if you get in the first-team we see bids come in for our players that are millions and millions of pounds. That's their challenge.

“The value won't be down to them, all they can do is be excellent and great at what they do. If we can encourage that, then the valuation or the next move they are chasing will come to them, they won't have to worry about it.”

In the here and now, Murty is in little doubt that one of the best additions he made to the Rangers staff over January was bringing Jimmy Nicholl back on to the Ibrox payroll.

His new assistant manager has seen it all at the club before, of course, and the trust that he can place in the Northern Irishman has allowed him to look at the bigger picture.

“Jimmy has been really positive to have in, because I can actually take a step back and allow him and JJ [Jonatan Johansson] to run training and run the mood of the group," he said.

“I can actually sit back and look at the group as a whole and look at the tactical part of it, so it’s been really good rather than me having to try and dabble into everything.

“I can afford to sit back a bit and do individual things with the players, or actually think about structure or think about the week.

“Rather than the minute-to-minute, I can think about the day-to-day.”