Allan McGregor today hits the elite and rare Rangers 500 club, when he will line up officially for his 500th appearance as a Rangers player, a testimonial (against Newcastle, curiously) having also been confirmed as the legendary goalie reaches the end of his glittering career.

There isn’t a Rangers fan in the land, no true one anyway, who has a bad word to say about this iconic stopper, who has produced, in Ibrox Noise’s view, the two greatest saves of the last 20 years.

Firstly, against Bremen with a miracle stop which was a big part of getting us to Manchester, then an even better one which didn’t mean as much but was absolutely staggering v Prague in the Czech Rep.

His best days, of course, are long behind him now, he’s now winding his career up and there’s just very little left of him at this level to give – McGregor served the club with utter distinction and deserves to retire on his terms.

And as much as we love him, we hope it will be fairly soon, this summer – McGregor will play this season out and then, we’d imagine, step back from playing and into coaching.

But there’s absolutely no questioning how good a stopper he’s been for Rangers – he didn’t realise his potential for Scotland, mainly being overlooked for Craig Gordon, and only got 45 or so caps for his country.

But Rangers saw the full and real McGregor, who broke Celtic hearts just like the late and Great Goalie did all those years ago.

Is McGregor among the best goalkeepers in Rangers’ history? Yes, there’s no question the 80s onwards saw a splurge of the finest goalkeeping talent in our history, with Chris Woods, Goram, Klos, and then McGregor as the highlights.

Few would deny McGregor among them, with the debate being between himself and Goram as the number one of all time. That’s not for us to decide.

But we absolutely respect and love McGregor – he’s the defining player of the last 20 years of the club, and while he had a time away, he never wanted to be away.

He earns his place in the 500 club with distinction.