SUCCESS in football is often a measure of the hunger of the men entrusted to bring silverware and glory to a club.
So, then, what happens when pampered princes of the game, who are accustomed to dining at the country's top table, are banished to fight for scraps off of the kitchen floor?
Apply this to Rangers, and with the start of the season coming quickly into view, the reality of the situation is ready to bite for Ally McCoist.
The small posse of players that drove through the grand Murray Park gates in their flashy cars earlier this month will in just a few weeks' time grace a pitch in more modest surroundings.
However, no matter what league the Ibrox club begin their struggle back to our top flight in, McCoist's kids will come up against teams filled with snarling, battle-hardened bruisers keen to claim the scalp of the once great club.
While a baying crowd of hundreds rather than thousands may await the Light Blues, according to Partick Thistle legend John Lambie, the task facing them should not be underestimated.
The ex-Jags manager, who guided the Firhill club back from the lower reaches of the Second Division to the SPL in successive seasons, believes Rangers' starlets must get ready for the fight of their lives if they have the appetite for the sweet taste of SPL victory any time in the near future.
The Firhill messiah said: "What I will say is that managing in the First Division is a different ball game than in the SPL. The game is played at a more frantic pace and the one thing that will apply to the challenge facing Ally is that Rangers will be the scalp everyone will be after.
"There will be guys lining up against Rangers, in either the Third or the First Division, who would never have expected to play against them.
"So it will be their cup final and every game Rangers will play in the SFL will see the opposition throw everything at them.
"Ally is going to have to have his boys well up for that as you go a long way in the SFL on hunger and desire. Motivation for me is a huge part of management outwith the SPL."
The wily Lambie was famed for plucking journeymen pros from the game's backwaters and turning them into inspirational figures with silky Firhill centre-back Scott Paterson an example.
He admits that achieving the perfect blend of experience and youth will be vital to Coisty.
Lambie said: "You don't get out of the First Division with boys. I think you really need experience that you can count on and that was a quality that was always foremost in my sides.
"When I took Thistle up back in 2002 we had guys like Jamie Dolan and wee Danny Lennon.
"I think the huge plus for Ally is that big Lee McCulloch has opted to stay on at the club. Ally has made him captain and I think he bleeds red, white and blue. That pride in the jersey and will to win are vital."
Lambie added: "Rangers, it would appear, are going to be a young side and McCulloch's experience will be crucial to galvanising the kids.
"We don't know just how tough it will be with regard to Rangers' ability to sign new players, but there is no doubt if they can't it will make life difficult.
"In the SFL you have a lot of old heads who have been around the game for a good while and if Rangers are fielding a young side they will be licking their lips at that."
Newco Rangers have agreed terms with former Hearts midfield star Ian Black on a deal that will see him sign for the Ibrox club only if they are parachuted into the First Division.
Lambie says Black would have been a player he would have loved to have had in his famous Thistle sides.
He said: "I hear that the laddy Ian Black, who was at Hearts, will sign if Rangers go into the First Division and he has that bit of badness about him I like in a player.
"He is one of these guys that you would love to have in your team, but would annoy the hell out of you if he was in the opposition."
Ultimately Lambie admits that if Gers are made to take the drop to the basement he has fears for the Scottish game.
Lambie said: "Scottish football can't afford Rangers out of the SPL for three seasons.
It would be financial madness. But the fact that Ally McCoist is staying regardless of what division Rangers are in underlines exactly why he is the man to lead them back to the SPL."