Four senior players, zero Charles Green help and Ally McCoist banter: Kyle Hutton on Rangers pre-season 2012

But those achievements had a special resonance for a man who lived through the dark days of their financial meltdown 10 years ago.

Hutton can still vividly recall how there were barely enough bodies to form a five-a-side team when he reported for the first day of pre-season training back in 2012.

“It is mind-blowing to experience what I did at Rangers and see where they are at today,” he said. “Winning a Scottish title and reaching a European final? That seemed impossible back then.”

It is little wonder. The young Scot was one of a handful of Rangers players who turned up at Auchenhowie on June 28, 2012, to prepare for a season in the Third Division after a summer of off-field upheaval and uncertainty.

The majority of the squad had refused to have their contracts transferred from the oldco to the newco and Neil Alexander, Kirk Broadfoot, Lee McCulloch and Lee Wallace were the only senior professionals in attendance.

With Alejandro Bedoya, Carlos Bocanegra, Dorin Goian and Maurice Edu having been given extra time off, Hutton was joined by Darren Cole, Scott Gallagher, Kane Hemmings, Kal Naismith and Ross Perry as well as free agents Chris Hegarty, Salim Kerkar and Andrew Mitchell.

“It was definitely surreal,” he said. “In the year previous years the squad had always been huge and you knew you were going to have to work hard to get a look in. But that pre-season there were only seven or eight first team players. It was strange.

“We had an idea that it was going to be like that before we went in because people had been leaving. As time went on, players came in and the squad got gradually built up again. But those early days were strange. Seeing seven or eight players turning up for pre-season training really drove home where we were at.”

Hutton remembered how captain McCulloch, vice-captain Wallace and manager Ally McCoist helped to keep everyone in a positive frame of mind ahead of their opening match – a Challenge Cup game against Brechin City at Glebe Park at the end of July.

“McCulloch was brilliant for the young boys during that time and really kept everybody buoyant,” he said. “We all knew the situation was pretty serious, but he really tried to keep our spirits up.

“He kept us upbeat, including by making jokes when it was appropriate. I think it made everybody think: ‘Okay, it’s bad just now, but it will be okay’.

“There has to be a bit of gallows humour in these situations. If it’s doom and gloom 24/7 that sends out the wrong message and works in a negative way for everybody. You need to have a bit of banter. All the senior boys were good, Waldo too. Coisty, the gaffer, was full of banter.”

He added: “I don’t think anybody else would have been able to put up with everything that the gaffer did and come through that. He kept everybody upbeat with his personality. In my opinion, he gets an unfair rap. I thought the criticism he received was harsh.

“He was trying to build a squad to get us out of the league at the same time as he was dealing with all sorts of other stuff in the background. Even to this day I am not sure what he had to put up with. He was brilliant for everybody.”

Hutton recalled how Charles Green, the Yorkshire businessman who had fronted the consortium which had bought control of Rangers assets that month, was a far more peripheral figure during that difficult time.  

“How much did Charles Green have to do with us?” he said. “Zero! You would see him floating about, but he never spoke to us. I remember he gave us a brief speech when he first came in when he talked about how he was going to save Rangers. But apart from that we didn’t hear from him.

“I was young at that time. I just got my head down and worked away along with all the other young lads. I am sure McCulloch and Waldo had meetings and were told about all of the goings on. But as a group Charles Green didn’t really address us.”

Hutton’s contemporaries John Fleck, Rhys McCabe and Jamie Ness had all opted to move on from Rangers that summer – but the former Scotland Under-21 internationalist saw an opportunity to feature regularly for the team he had grown up in Glasgow supporting and chose to stay.

The midfielder did not have cause to regret his decision.   

“It was a strange time,” he said. “We were preparing to play in the Third Division. But personally for me as a young boy I was still part of the Rangers first team squad. It was brilliant for me to be in that environment.

“Like everybody else, I had the opportunity to leave. But I had an opportunity to play for Rangers, even if it was in the bottom tier. I felt that was a chance I couldn’t turn down. I thought: ‘I can’t say no to that’. I signed up for two years.

“I don’t care if it is the Third Division or the Premiership, when you play in front of 50,000 fans every other week it does benefit you. You get used to playing in front of that size of crowd and with that sort of pressure on you. It helps you develop as a footballer.

“People will have a wee dig and say: ‘Aye, but it was only the Third Division!’ But every game against us was a cup final for our opponents. Every team we came up against put 10 men behind the ball. Ask any footballer and they will all tell you the same thing, that can be frustrating.

“But I loved it, I really loved it. I was a young boy and I did a few daft things which I shouldn’t have. But that is part and parcel of growing up. I wouldn’t change a thing. We won the Third Division and promotion that season.”

Hutton added: “It is brilliant to see where Rangers are now. My dad always says: ‘You played a part in that! You helped Rangers get back to the top! You had a hand in getting them back up through the leagues! Don’t knock it!’ He sees it that way, I don’t see it that way to be honest.

“But when you look at where we were in that first pre-season – walking in to see seven or eight first team players – and look at where we are now – winning the Scottish title and reaching a European final – it is amazing. I didn’t think it would ever be possible.”