Ryan Jack is being rightly lauded today, for a tubthumping performance which rolled back the years and gave the man the biggest boost possible to his chances of a new deal.

Back in the olden days, the ‘old’ Jack was a monster in midfield, an incredible worker who covered for James Tavernier especially, and Rangers just did not concede goals when he was on the pitch.

The first portion of 55, before his injury, he was literally in three places at once – centrally, spreading the play, advanced, a little bit of box-to-box running, and right back, covering his captain’s forays forward.

He did all of this with no effort at all, and he was titanic.

The injuries ruined that.

But last night? We saw a lot of that coming back, but in an evolved fashion. Covering Tavernier as he always did, but hasn’t so much recently, while crunching through the middle and bringing some attacking prowess to his game, this was the Ryan Jack we used to see, but even more dominant.

Everything went through him, and he looked strong again, a lot less of the slightly off the pace Jacko he’s been for so long, almost a little lightweight.

This, in every sense, was him not only back to his best, but actually even better than he used to be.

He has added the dynamism to his game, he was compensating for no John Lundstram meaning he was the ‘Barry Ferguson’ in this one, and he absolutely thrived on it – he’s never really played this role before, but last night, he was the player, the central hub, the fuse that lit everything around him.

Keep up even 70% of this form and he’s completely undroppable, keep fit and that’s an achievement in itself!

Michael Beale said Ryan Jack is 100% a starter when he’s available, but proceeded to drop him anyway. Playing like this gives the manager zero option and if he can stay healthy, Jack will get his new deal as a formality.

This is more than the Ryan Jack we’re all used to – and we want more of this.