As we mentioned earlier, we had a little more to say on Jordan Jones’ loan exit to Sunderland.

To quote the NI winger:

This is a very, very interesting quote.

On the face of it, he appears to be surprisingly praising of Steven Gerrard and appreciating the opportunity, but there’s a little more to it:

He is completely unable to mention him by name.

We’ve seen this a few times before, when Rangers players went out on loan and were a little sore at how little they played at Ibrox, but spoke with a forced smile at their new club and praised ‘the Rangers manager’ and not ‘Steven Gerrard’.

There is no way Jordan Jones is happy at switching his boyhood club for Sunderland. True, Sunderland is his home and if there was one place he was happy to go if he couldn’t be at Ibrox, the Stadium of Light was it.

But there’s no denying a grudge here, a well-hidden one.

We will never truly know if Jones was a Gerrard-approved addition, it was under the watch of Mark Allen. And even before the infamous Old Firm tackle, Jones was only a bit-part player, despite Rangers not even having signed Ryan Kent yet.

There are claims Jones lost his composure when he got to Ibrox, that he thought he’d made it and got complacent.

In truth the ex-Killie man partially admits his training wasn’t good enough and he’d upped his level, hence being given a chance v Motherwell. So that story isn’t without foundation.

But clearly our manager doesn’t want this guy, not right now. Jones seems to turn his attitude on and off when he likes, committing himself periodically but not consistently.

He may be a tonne more applicating at Sunderland, because he’s back to ‘not having made it’ down there, with all due respect to them.

But it’s a real shame that he has so much talent and he’s an international, but his own lack of committed professionalism stops him hitting the true heights he’s capable of.

We’ve seen him at his best, assisting international goals and scoring great ones for Rangers. His assist last season year for Alfredo Morelos v Warsaw got us into the Europa League.

He has it in him.

But he’s not had the ‘noodle’ for Rangers.

And he admits it:

If Jones, silly boy, can get his head on, and prove himself for the next 4-6 months, then maybe there is a role for him back at Ibrox, and even then he will need to continue to be judged to higher standards than others just because he’s let himself down so many times.

It’s not just the jonny big shoes nonsense, it wasn’t just the tackle v Celtic, and not just the covid nonsense either. It’s the sad waste of a player who could be so much more.

It’s not too late for Jordan Jones, but he is running out of time.

Make yourself count down there son, and come back truly ready to impact at Ibrox.

It’s definitely last chance saloon for the lad.