Before we begin, let me just say that I think Joey Barton is a first-class football acquisition for Rangers. He appears to have curbed the off-field indiscretions of is younger years and by all accounts he had an excellent season last year down at Burnley.

Frank McParland’s connections have worked very well in getting Rangers a player whom I think will do very well in a football sense.

However, the one thing I would say is that there is a perception that you have been there and seen it all when you get to these twilight years of your career. It is not going to take too long before Barton realises that Glasgow is different to anywhere else, and I don’t that say that lightly.

He comes from Liverpool which, like Glasgow, is a city who loves its football but unlike Liverpool, Glasgow is divided not on football lines but on something that runs deeper than that.

So I wouldn’t be too surprised if there is someone at Rangers who is quick to have a quiet word in Joey’s ear. It is all very well having an opinion and being forthright with it but in my day we had a saying that it was one thing to say it and another to actually do it.

Think your better than Scott Brown? Show us, Joey.

It is that simple.

Players of many different eras and generations will all tell you the same thing; step out of line in Glasgow and be prepared for the inquisition that comes with it.

I don’t give two hoots where the guy has played his football before – there is nothing to compete with the intensity of Glasgow when you play for Celtic or Rangers.

Remember Neil Lennon and Ally McCoist and the carnage that ensued after they squared up to one another on the touchline? To this day there is no-one who has publicly divulged what was said between the two of them – guys who have a fair bit of respect for the other – and yet we saw the aftermath of that.

And we don’t even know what was said!

There was mayhem and that is where I think someone has to say to Barton to take care. If you are seen to incite something then there is a very real chance in Glasgow that it can lead to other things.

This is all before a ball has been kicked so it will be interesting to see how things start to go down in the aftermath of games when there are controversial decisions.

I also think that with the role social media now plays, not just in football, but in our culture as a whole, it can be difficult for clubs to stop players saying things that can come back to haunt them.

I know I am of an entirely different generation, but it seems as though there is a certain amount of attention courted by people on Twitter and Facebook, and the more you get the more addictive it seems to be.

It might be then that even if someone at Rangers is urging Barton to take care and mind how he goes, that he has an outlet anyway for views that he wants to get across.

In my day, we were rivals, you always wanted to beat Rangers but we were also colleagues at international level and we had a respect for one another. The other thing was that the manger’s word was sacrosanct.

We would have been well schooled by Jock Stein and Sean Fallon that even if a journalist asked us before the game if we thought we would win that we would be guarded with our words. I don’t ever recall too many players coming out and saying something that caused too much of a stir.

I am not stupid and I do understand that we living in very different times but I still think there has to be a level of common sense involved if you are playing football in Glasgow.

Brendan Rodgers is an experienced man when it comes to the game. Yet I suspect that even if you were to ask him about the reception he received when he walked into Celtic Park that he would have been taken aback by it. Glasgow is just different when it comes to football. There is an intensity to it and I think you have to proceed with some caution when you are in this environment and people are hanging on your every word.

One thing is for sure, it is bound to be an entertaining season that lies ahead of us. Not a ball has been kicked yet and we have all had plenty to talk about so it augers well for the months ahead.