Some may view spending an entire season warming the bench as a waste of a time - but not Jack Butland.
The new Rangers recruit may not have sampled the minutes he was hoping for when he signed up at Old Trafford last summer, but the 30-year-old insists his 12 months on loan at Manchester United was anything but a year misspent. The Red Devils may not be the all-conquering behemoth of Sir Alex Ferguson’s day but it remains one of the world’s few genuine super clubs, where the only thing set higher than the standards inside the club are the expectation levels from those outside peering in.
His season sitting on the sidelines acting as cover for David de Gea offered Butland an insight into what it takes to reach the top. And he says he’s now desperate to put those lessons into practice on the pitch at Ibrox after agreeing to become Michael Beale’s third summer signing.
The former England stopper - a member of Gareth Southgate’s 2018 World Cup squad - said after agreeing his long-term deal: “I’m over the moon. The club speaks for itself. No matter where you are in football, you know about Rangers Football Club. This is a huge opportunity for me, and I’m delighted to be here. I feel great and motivated at the age that I am, and I feel excited at what the future holds.
“Doing that at a club that is equally as passionate about winning and being at the top was huge for me. The manager came to see me a month or so ago and he played a presentation, with all the bells and whistles.
“Nothing will compare to Ibrox packed, it was an easy sell and it was something in a football perspective that is a no-brainer. I can’t wait to get started. I think I am a leader and I am a vocal person.
“I like to set standards and be on top of people in the changing room on and off the park setting the standards. I like to be big and imposing in goal and how the manager wants to play.
“Spending the last six months at Manchester United and playing with those players and their style, I have picked up a lot. Like this opportunity, Manchester United is a club you don’t turn down.
“You don’t turn down the opportunity to join clubs like that with the history that they have, with the players that they have got. Me going there, it was only an opportunity to better myself and to learn.
“The European nights we had, the Carabao Cup Final, obviously a disappointing result in the FA Cup Final. I think it has prepared me well for what is to come here.
“I have been lucky enough throughout my career to be involved with England and been at major tournaments and things like that, so United was another taste of success, if you like, a taste of getting to those major knock-out games.
“That is what being here is all about. Hopefully I can take some of that into pre-season and we have many nights like that ourselves.”
Butland is viewing his move to Glasgow as a fresh start but then again, he hardly has reason to feel jaded. Since swapping Stoke for Crystal Palace in 2020, the Bristol-born shot stopper has registered a mere 17 first-team appearances and none at all since May last year when he was given the thumbs up to join United.
But that time out of action has only made him hungrier to make up for lost time. Butland, who joins Gers on a free transfer, said: “At 30 I’ve still got so much energy, so much life. I feel first and strong and highly motivated.
“For me, it’s about succeeding and I believe we can do that here. That’s what I want to do. I want to win trophies and that’s certainly what the club wants to do too. Together I think it’s going to be a great partnership.
“It is what you want as a player – those big games, the Old Firms, the European nights. They are the games you want to be a part of. The last six months with United I had that experience but you want to be the one on the grass.
“For me that is the target and I can’t wait to see this place rocking in the coming weeks and months. They are the moments you live for. I enjoy the pressure and I am looking forward to it.”
Butland admits he was charmed just as much by the chance to play at Ibrox as he was by his new manager’s sales pitch. “There are so many brand new state of the art stadiums that don’t have that character and history of this place,” he told Rangers TV.
“Going around the stadium, I walked in the trophy room and saw how much we have won and success the club has had.
“It might have been tactical with a few spaces left for us to fill in the coming years. The history and what it has done and what we hope to do, is winning and every player wants that.”
Moving onto the role played by Beale in his decision to move north, he continued: “He played a massive part. No matter the size of the club you still want to hear good things from the manager. You want to hear that desire, a plan and a direction.
“What this club expects is a given regardless of the manager but when you hear a manager speak about how quickly he wants to get us back to winnings ways and how he wants to do that, as a player that’s music to your ears. It plays a huge part. I wouldn’t say it was the final nail in the coffin to come - I was already on my way!”
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