Barry Ferguson's future may not involve him being Rangers manager, but regardless of who gets the job, the former captain has been impressed with the newly appointed man who will lead the football operation into a new era, Kevin Thelwell.
The club's next sporting director, hired from Premier League club Everton, sat down for a long debrief with the interim manager on Monday amid a visit from the American consortium set to buy Rangers.
While Ferguson didn't want to delve into the fine details of the conversation, he was able to detail his feelings and experiences since taking over from Philippe Clement in February.
And he left happy and impressed by the Scouser after underlining why change is urgently needed to a squad that has failed to make much of an impact on the Scottish domestic scene this season.
Read more:
Ferguson said: "We had a long meeting. It was good. It's the first time I've sat down with him and I was impressed. Obviously, what was said will remain private. It was great to bang heads together. He got my feelings, he totally understood them. He was very impressive and it's something that I think will work really well for the club.
"I came out of the meeting feeling good about it and I'm hopeful Kevin did as well. We understand that there's going to be a lot of changes and there has to be a lot of changes to try and make this club successful again. It's built on winning trophies and it's clear over the last number of years that we've won nowhere near enough.
"If I'm not going to be here, I'm excited about the prospect of new owners coming in. Kevin came in as the sporting director, head of the football department. I said changes had to happen. These changes now are starting to happen. If I am a Rangers supporter, which I am, and the hundreds of thousands that are out there should be excited about what's hopefully going to be coming."
And those changes can't come soon enough. While the Europa League brings in enough cash to keep Rangers ticking over, the transformative money is in the Champions League.
Once again this summer, there's another chance for the Ibrox side to qualify and kick themselves into a new financial stratosphere - but are they ready for the test?
You'd have to say at this point, it's looking challenging with so much work yet to be done, a sentiment that Ferguson clearly acknowledges.
He said: "Plans need to take shape. We are a couple of weeks away from the season finishing and before you know it, you're back in pre-season. Before you know it, you've got Champions League qualifiers and then the league starts. It's clear that Rangers as a club need to start moving because, as I mentioned there, the season's just around the corner."
First of all, Rangers have to traverse the remaining four fixtures of a wretched league campaign. Celtic are up next and their visit to Ibrox presents Rangers the not to be sniffed at chance to win a third Old Firm game in a row for the first time since the 1996/97 campaign.
A 2-2 draw in Paisley last weekend was not a result or performance that would instil too much confidence in that sequence happening thought. It was a match that saw a clearly frustrated and angry Ferguson roundly criticise his charges for failing to follow instructions.
Reflecting back he said: "There was a lot of frustration for a number of reasons, because I wasn't happy with the way the game went. Again, we've had a full week, we've spent a bit of time going through certain scenarios that I wasn't happy with. We've still got another day to go, we'll do a lot more work tomorrow, but they're clear on what I wasn't happy with. That needs to improve and I expect a big improvement on Sunday.
"It had better change, and it has to change. That's something, again, we spoke about as a group, that's something that I wasn't happy with. It's clear, you've seen that after the game. Again, we've been through a lot this week and I expect them to take the information on.
"I couldn't care less about the performance. I just want to get three points. It's a bonus for me if you play well in the games. I tend to not look at what happened in the past. That was a number of weeks ago and I'll expect the same level, if not better, on Sunday.
"I know a lot of people want to see free-flowing, attractive football and I totally get that, but it's all about winning games of football. It's clear that we've won enough this season and it's something that we need to get better at going forward. Not just this season, but next season and the following season after that."
Looking that far ahead, it seems unlikely that Ferguson will be the man calling the shots. With four defeats and three draws in his eleven games, he's likely to return to his ambassadorial role in the summer as the new regime looks for an experienced coach to take the reins.
While being in the top job, even on an interim basis, has been a thrill, departing is something the 47-year-old is comfortable with.
"Of course I'll miss it," he said. "I'm comfortable with the situation. I was comfortable with the situation when I got offered the job. I'm comfortable with the situation come May 17 and I need to go back and do what I was doing.
"I was enjoying myself, but this has been, how could I put it in simple words? It's been an amazing couple of months for me. A few ups and downs, but I kind of knew that when I came into the role, but it's given me my taste for it. As I've said last week, somebody asked me the question, would I take it? Of course I would take it.
"If I don't get it, I'm not going to spit the dummy out. I'll still go back to my role and come and support the club and hopefully see it be successful again."
One player who might help with that in the short term is defender Leon Balogun, who has returned from a facial injury that saw him removed from play against Bilbao and forced him to miss the draw last weekend.
The Nigerian defender remains the club's most reliable, even in his twilight years, and his experience and physicality could be crucial in a hard-fought derby.
"Leon trained today with a mask on, and he looked fine," Ferguson said. "Again, we'll need to obviously see how he reacts tomorrow. But good to see him back, obviously got a minor operation on his fracture of the cheekbone, so it was good to see him back out today."
