Seeing Rangers players back for preseason, Ibrox Noise couldn’t help but be a little bit optimistic with the sight of four of them in particular:

Danilo, Connor Barron, Ridvan Yilmaz and Oscar Cortes.

That all of the Brazilian, Colombian and Turk are now (seemingly) fit again was a very reassuring sight to behold, along with Rangers’ new recruit of the former Aberdeen midfielder.

We aren’t jumping to conclusions and saying 56 is ours and all four are Celtic killers, but we are saying having a core of talent like that gives a little more cause for positivity.

We all saw what Cortes could do – he’s an exceptional winger, who manager Philippe Clement boobed up with big time, and it cost us his services for the season. But there’s no questioning either what he tangibly offered us in our shirt, or what his career was doing for Ligue 1 Lens either.

While we would never jump up and down and call the boy world class, he’s absolutely the most effective winger we can remember seeing at Rangers for many years, a natural on the ball who can assist and score. It’s a sorry tale that we’ve had so few worthy in that position in the past decade, but that’s for another time.

Then there’s Danilo.

We might not be earmarking the boy as a bustling centre-forward, but 11 goals and assists in 21 appearances show he knows how to score, and could be very effective set up in the right way.

We’ve all seen how good Ridvan is at his best, his overlapping runs are outstanding, his attacking is effective, and his defending is very solid. He does lack height, but he’s got most of the rest of what his position needs.

And lastly Barron, a potentially-fantastic midfielder who will form part of a core that currently includes, for sure, Nico Raskin and Mohamed Diomande. We wonder if Dujon Sterling will be part of that, or if Kenny McLean will indeed be signed.

But the point?

It forms a decent backbone, in theory – Butland, Ridvan, Barron, Cortes and Danilo.

It gives a hint of positivity for sure and we look forward to watching these guys.

Hopefully, surrounded by similar quality players.