IT is a mark of Gareth McAuley’s quality that even at the age of 38, there was a queue of suitors making advances in his direction during the summer after his contract at West Brom ran down. Once Rangers were mentioned though, there was nowhere else the life-long true blue wanted to be.

Sometimes, the best things come to those who wait, and in McAuley’s case, he was prepared to hang fire as a free agent to grasp an opportunity he feared may have passed him by, and he was rewarded as Steven Gerrard handed him the chance to walk out at his very own field of dreams.

But just being at Ibrox is not enough for the Northern Irishman, who now has his sights set on making his friends and family proud by helping to bring back silverware to the club he has always loved from afar.

“Being honest, this was the club I wanted to come to,” McAuley said. “There was a whisper at the end of last season that it might be a possibility and throughout the summer I was knocking things back waiting to see if it could happen. This was the one that gave me a spark and a buzz, and I really wanted to do it.

“I could have going to another Premier League club, but I would have been involved in another relegation battle probably. I’d done that for the last seven years as success at West Brom was always about staying up. It was different coming here. I wanted to come here with the chance to win trophies, to have that different pressure of playing every week to win. Second isn’t good enough here. And that’s why I came.

“Looking back on seven years in the Premier League, we survived six years out of seven but what did we actually win? Nothing really. When it came to cup games the manager would change the team, so we had no chance of getting to cup finals. That’s the buzz for me, that’s the draw.

“Even pulling up in the bus outside Ibrox before the Motherwell game I felt like an 18-year-old. The buzz I got was unbelievable.

“I was comfortable [knocking back offers] because it was Rangers. It was a calculated risk if you like but, not disrespect to the other clubs and I thank them for their interest and their offers, this is the one that gave me the buzz and I wanted to come here

“My agents couldn’t really believe it. But this is a massive club, a world-famous club, the most successful club. I couldn’t think of anywhere better to come and play football.”

That decision is likely to be vindicated further if he makes the starting line-up for Thursday night’s Europa League encounter with Villarreal. With their group coming down to the nitty gritty, he expects that the incredible atmosphere he was a part of against Rapid Vienna at Ibrox might even be surpassed. It’s all a long way from his first taste of European football as a youngster with Coleraine.

“I played a few qualifiers,” he said. “I think I scored in one of them – I think against a team from Andorra. That was a long time ago and this will be completely different, but the basics are the same.

“One of the things I have always taken with me since I played in the Irish Cup final is to play the game and not the occasion. It’s a special night but that will be for after it, especially if we have got a result.

“The lads went out in Spain, went toe to toe with Villarreal and got a draw with them. They are obviously a good side, but that performance should give everyone confidence – especially with the crowd behind you.

“It’ll be a new experience for me. I’ve not been playing or pitchside yet [for a European match] so it will be completely different to being in the stand the last few European games. As a spectacle and atmosphere those games were breath-taking. Hopefully we can produce another special result.

“I had never been to a European game as a fan before, so the atmosphere was incredible [against Rapid Vienna]. The players were coming off the pitch and saying it’s the best they’ve ever played in. My mates travel across regularly to the games and they’re right in the mix of it and have always talked about it. But to be there to experience it for myself was something special. I’m hungry now to be involved on the pitch and to soak it all up if I can.”

His manager agrees that the carrot of the famed Ibrox atmosphere has helped him attract players to the club, not that the likes of McAuley took much persuasion.

“When you speak to players about coming here, they all want that European stage, that atmosphere, that full house at Ibrox,” Gerrard said.

“There’s very few clubs around the world can provide that atmosphere," Steven Gerrard said. "We can, and we have. Everyone wants to be a part of it.

“It’s surprised us in many ways how the players have thrived on it. Gareth and Scott Arfield aside, we’re quite an inexperienced group. We’re a new group and several players weren’t playing regular football.

“To qualify firstly was a big achievement. I think the confidence they take from that is important. We’re playing against Champions League teams in this group and players are stepping up and meeting the challenge.

“Even the games we haven’t won have been very close and very tight. That’s a compliment to the players.

“These nights at Ibrox and travelling away is vital experience. Even Gaz at his age is loving it. He wants to be part of it.”