BERT KONTERMAN knew Mark Warburton could talk the talk. Now, twelve months on, he is delighted to see him walking the walk at Rangers.

The former Ibrox defender returned to Glasgow last year to continue on his road towards management and was introduced to the Warburton way for the first time.

Back then, he was an unknown to the Dutchman. Today, he is an inspiration and the man Konterman is confident will lead Rangers back to the top of Scottish football.

The Warburton blueprint is already having a significant impact at Ibrox as he has overhauled his Gers squad, implemented a new style of play and laid out a fresh philosophy at all levels of the Light Blues’ football department.

If the Englishman can continue on the current trajectory, Rangers will be back in the Premiership sooner rather than later. But Konterman, now a coach at FC Twentre, reckons there is plenty more than that to come from the former Brentford boss.

He said: “A year ago I was here for the intro to the UEFA Pro License - I had my plan to do that in Scotland. And who was the speaker? Mark Warburton.

“I had never heard of him but he gave a fantastic presentation for two and a half hours and he was talking all about the statistics and the way they worked at Brentford.

“Then six months later he is the new manager of Rangers and doing well.

“The conference was at Hampden and I have to say he was new to me. He was down to earth and realistic and gave a very good presentation.

“It was over two hours but everyone was concentrating and listening to him.

“It was realistic – he didn’t feed us any bull****. He had a vision.

“When I heard he was Rangers boss it gave me a positive feeling.

“When you look around football you see so many trainers who have no vision or idea about how to train or play.

“When he came in I thought – ‘finally – a man with a vision’. And so far you can see that it works.”

It is one thing to arrive at Ibrox with a plan, but it is quite another to be able to put it into action. For Warburton, it is a case of so far, so good.

Life in Glasgow can take some getting used to but, with Gers legend David Weir as his right hand man, the 53-year-old has quickly realised what he has signed up for.

He has been tasked with completing The Journey, but sights have to be set far higher than just securing top flight football this term.

Konterman spent three years at Ibrox after being brought to the club by Dick Advocaat and left Scotland having collected three major honours, and having secured his place in the hearts of fans with his famous goal against Celtic at Hampden.

And the 45-year-old is pleased to see a man with Warburton’s long-term vision in situ at Ibrox as he looks forward to a brighter Light Blue future.

“I’m surprised with how he has settled, but happy that is the case,” he said.

“You never know how it will start and how the players will click with him.

“There are some people who think footballers are stupid and have no education.

“But football players can have a feeling about a coach and I think immediately there was a good feeling and link with him and his players.

“If you don’t feed them **** then players will go for it.

“This is the best move of the last three or four years. You need a leader and a guy with a vision to point the club in one direction.

“There are people who know a lot about football, but working in a football company is different.

“I’ve also seen this in Holland because football is like no other business.

“Emotion rules sometimes and that’s not like normal business where you can make mistakes and it’s not analysed and in the papers every day.

“In a football company everything is followed and under a microscope and some people forget that.”

Having extended their winning run and maintained their advantage at the top of the Championship with victory over Raith Rovers on Tuesday night, Rangers will now switch their attentions to the Scottish Cup this weekend.

Konterman returned to Glasgow to look ahead to the fifth round tie with Kilmarnock at Ibrox and sees no reason why Warburton’s side can’t set their sights on the silverware this term.

If the Gers are to go all the way, they could well have to overcome Old Firm rivals Celtic before they can celebrate at Hampden.

And Konterman is confident Warburton’s side would put up a far better fight this time around than they did during a tame League Cup loss last season.

He said: “I saw it on television with Jimmy Calderwood, we did commentary on it, but I was not happy.

“The team I saw last year was not playing for the win, they were only trying to avoid a goal against, and that is what irritated Jimmy and me.

“We want to see a fight from Rangers against Celtic, because sometimes there combination football was better than Celtic's.

“But Celtic killed every situation, every mistake from Rangers, it was a goal, it was a goal. The intention of Rangers was not to win that match, in Jimmy's and my opinion.

“What I see now is an attacking Rangers side, with combinations, which tries to put the opposition under pressure and I think that is the way to beat Celtic and other teams as well.

“Go with your vision, the players know the way it works, they train every day with that vision, the manager tells them that, and if you do that in the big games it gives you confidence. Then you are a leader.”