Nicky Law has told former team-mates who were brutally axed by the club after the Dave King takeover: I can understand your pain.

Kris Boyd, Ian Black and Ricky Foster all railed against the way their exit from Ibrox was handled by King after the Gers failed to win promotion from last season’s Championship.

Law stopped short of criticising his employers for the way the summer clear-out was handled.

But he admitted he has sympathy with the likes of Lee McCulloch, who is now on the brink of joining Boyd at Kilmarnock in a player/coaching role.

Law said: “Everyone that left the club, I’d like to think they were friends of mine, they’re people I’d shared a dressing room with for two years.

“They’re all good guys and they’re all good pros. They’ve come out and spoken and they’re free to do so, of course they are, and it’s obviously difficult for me to say too much as I’m still at the club.

“You can maybe understand though that they might be upset because through the papers is not usually how you would find out you were leaving a club.

“So it obviously leaves a bitter taste for those boys, and probably more so for the older boys like Jig [McCulloch], who has given fantastic service to the club, captained the club for three years and, of course, is Rangers through and through, so I’m sure it would have hurt.

“I don’t know the ins and outs of it too well, so it’s difficult for me to comment too much, but the boys have come out and said what they have said, and from their point of view they will be disappointed and probably hurt by it.”