As a Rangers player, Jimmy Nicholl worked under the likes of Jock Wallace and Graeme Souness, so it would be fair to say that he knows a thing or two about discipline.

That’s why he is delighted to see that present-day Rangers boss Pedro Caixinha is taking a hard line when it comes to dealing with poor application from members of his squad.

Harry Forrester is the latest player to be brought to task for his attitude, with the midfielder reportedly being sent away from the training ground for two weeks and being told he can find himself a new club.

Read more: Exclusive: Manchester City Academy chief Mark Allen set to become Director of Football at RangersGlasgow Times: Bad books: Harry Forrester has been told he can find a new club after falling foul of Pedro Caixinha's code of conduct.

Nicholl reckons that standards have been slipping at Ibrox over the last few years, and he is glad that they seem to at last be rising again under the Portuguese gaffer.

He is dismayed though that such action is having to be taken against a player who has come from Doncaster Rovers, and seems to have blown his chance at the big-time with Rangers.

“It’s good to see Pedro doing what he is doing,” Nicholl told TimesSport.

“I know the difference between discipline and non-discipline, and if you don’t have it then it just gets out of hand.

“Even if it’s only one or two players, if you don’t discipline them then you lose the respect of the honest pros who might think that action should be getting taken.

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“All of a sudden, it snowballs, and players start to think that there’s no point in them having any standards because the manager doesn’t. You’ve got to do the right thing.

“If the player hasn’t been applying himself in training properly, even if his future isn’t at Rangers, then that’s not acceptable.

“I can’t understand young footballers these days who don’t enjoy training and don’t enjoy playing football.

“Harry has been in and out of the team and has had injuries, but if he hasn’t been playing games for Rangers because of his attitude and application, then that’s horrific.

“It should be a lesson to any young lad. If you get an opportunity to go to a club like Rangers, be on decent money and play in front of 50,000 every other week, then take it.

“Take time out of your life and dedicate yourself to football, because you’re a long time not playing.

“It really annoys me when I see young people with an attitude problem. Players will find their level, but if you’ve got ability and you don’t maximize it because of your attitude and application, then I’m sorry, but you don’t want those sorts of people about the place.”

Even if Forrester has been told that he has no future at Ibrox, Nicholl believes that he may be doing his chances of a move to another club harm if he is refusing to give 100% in training.

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“The player has got to watch,” he said. “What if other managers phone Pedro about him? What is he supposed to say? That he has a player who is lazy, overweight and unfit with terrible application, and who is a cancer around the place? Does he want him to tell them that?”

Working as he did with such hard task-masters in his time at Rangers, Nicholl is all too aware of how high standards off the field can seep their way onto the field, and positively influence a team’s form.

And he hopes that Caixinha will continue to take a hard line with his players, so that everyone at the club knows what is expected of them.

“One of the first things Jock Wallace said to me was that I was the luckiest man in the world," said Nicholl.

"He said: ‘When you signed for Rangers under John Greig, you walked into training on the Friday morning with an open-necked shirt on and a jumper.’

“I only signed on the Thursday night, then had my breakfast at the Swallow Hotel on Bellahouston Road before training.

"As I was walking over, this bloke said ‘good luck at Rangers son’. How he found out I had signed for Rangers the night before I don’t know. I just said: ‘Thanks very much’.

“It turns out it was Eric Caldow that had spoken to me. He phoned Jock and told him. Jock said that if I had tried that two weeks later with him as the boss he would have kicked my a**e.

“I didn’t know the rule was to wear a collar and tie to training, but it shows you the sort of standards that were in place.

“When you were going over to the Albion for training you had to run, you weren’t allowed to walk. You had to have your socks up.

“People might say that they were treating us like kids, but it was a form of discipline and you knew you had to toe the line.

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“Then Graeme Souness came, and Graeme was very much a disciplinarian.

“The one example that stood out for me was in the way he dealt with Graham Roberts. We played a game and got beat one-nil, and he blamed Robbo for the goal. We had all rushed out to play offside, and Robbo had stayed in.

“Souness said: ‘Are you not taking the blame for that goal? Are you taking the responsibility?’

“Robbo said no, and Souness replied: ‘Well congratulations, you have just played your last game for Glasgow Rangers.

“And that’s what happened. That summer I was taking the reserves, and Souness had him in at eight in the morning running and then sent him away before the players came in, and then back again at half-four for more running.

“That went on for ages. The first-team went to Italy and I had to take Robbo to the pre-season reserve games, away down to Blackpool and all these places. I was getting told to make him sub but don’t bring him on and things like that.

“Robbo was no shrinking violet, but that showed who was boss.”