THE word loan may be a dirty word around the halls of Ibrox Stadium right now given the current stand-off with Mike Ashley, and yet borrowing players rather than money from other club owners does seem to be a way to move forward.

Mark Warburton used the loan system to his considerable advantage last season when he had five such players on the books at Brentford at any one time. It would not be outrageous to suggest the new Rangers manager will look to similar short-term deals over the next few weeks.

He won't be the only one. In recent years, many English-based players have taken the risk, and that is what many view it as, and made a temporary move to Scottish football for some much-needed game time.

Celtic won the lottery with Jason Denyaer and Fraser Forster, the two in different ways being the best examples possible of a loan deal coming good. Then there was the Newcastle United pair of Paul Dummett and Connor Newton who helped St Mirren win the League Cup.

And while Newcastle is another word you can only whisper in Govan, the goals of Haris Vuckic at least gave Rangers a chance of promotion; although it's hard to utterly forget the nothing contribution offered by the other four from St James' Park.

It should be an almost perfect system. Player A in England can't get a game. Club in Scotland offers him at least half a season of regular football which they would never get stuck in the reserves with a late substitute appearance in a nothing cup game being their best hope of getting on the pitch.

Like the ones mentioned above, the player does well and goes back to his parent club much improved. Dummett, for example, has been a regular with Newcastle since his time at St Mirren.

But what Warburton may find is that persuading decently paid young players on a move north, even if they are not close to the first-team, is not without its difficulties.

Gus MacPherson, the Queen's Park manager, was left frustrated many times during his years at St Mirren when several players turned down his offer of a loan deal, preferring to stay where they were, picking up a wage for not playing football.

"What I will say is that good players want to play and the lads who come up here tend to turn out well because of that," said MacPherson. "It is so much better for a player to get completive football than staying with the development squad.

"One of the problems I faced over the years with St Mirren was because the loan was cross border, meaning the player had to stay at least from August to December, and quite a few didn't fancy that. They preferred to stay in England, move away from their club for just a month or so, which they could do, and then they wouldn't feel that they were literally miles away from the first-team.

"Clubs would love to send their players up here. It's just some of the players would say no. I have never really understood that, although I believe it's a little bit easier than a few years ago since less young players are getting their chance at the biggest club."

Another manager, who spent many years in the top flight, believes a problem is that too many young players in England see the game here was some sort of wasteland.

"They don't rate it and think they are too good for up here," he told me. "You can ask some kid who hasn't played a game for the first-team to come up for a season, and I'm talking League One here, that you could give him a platform and he'd enjoy playing in a good quality league.

"But they get paid too much when they haven't done anything and would prefer to stay put. It's the wrong decision."

Nobody wants to see the Scottish Premiership and the Championship chock full of loans. However, as MacPherson said, the good guys want to play and play anywhere.

"I was 19 at Rangers and John Mc Gregor asked me if I wanted to go to Exeter City on loan," he said. "I told him yes. I had no hesitation. I just wanted to play. I also had no clue where Exeter was. It was only when I got him, looked at a map and thought 'oh s***.' I still went right enough."