“I took along all my family that night thinking, ‘it might be my last home game,” he tells Herald Sport.

“I had been to the hotel all day with the team all days and had lunch and a sleep before the bus to Ibrox.

“We got to the stadium pre-match and nobody has said a word to me, so I am thinking I am in the squad and might play…”

Any realistic hope of Rangers winning the league title had extinguished the previous week after a defeat at Parkhead.

Fully recovered from a muscle injury, Jack still had plenty to play for. His contract was up at the end of the season and the Scottish Cup Final against Celtic was just around the corner. Despite injuries corrupting his season he felt sure he still had something to offer.

He had no idea if Philippe Clement felt the same. Whenever he knocked on the manager’s door pinning the Belgian down was like nailing jelly to the wall.

When his name was absent from the squad list for Dundee, he finally had his answer. At 32, he had been around football long enough to sense which way the wind was blowing.

“That was after seven years of graft and putting my life into every day and playing through pain barriers, because that’s what you do.

“That night against Dundee was when I thought that it was not going to work out for Clement at Rangers.

“Because when other people see you treat players who had been there for seven years like that then they say, ‘nah, he’s miles off it.’

“Players are human and it’s like any walk of life. If your boss does that you think, ‘nah, that’s not on.’

Currently a free agent after two years in Turkey, the former Scotland midfielder is taking his time over what comes next. At 34 he wants to play on after the kind of family Christmas he never managed when the festive fixture card piled up one game after another at Aberdeen and Rangers. When he sits down to write some cards to family and friends its safe to assume that the name of the current Norwich City manager won’t be on the list.

“I actually remember guys like Jack Butland, Conor Goldson and James Tavernier and John Lundstram saying to me, ‘that’s an absolute disgrace what the manager has done to you.’

“When that happened the penny dropped that I was definitely going to be leaving for sure.”

For long periods of season 2023/24 Rangers had looked a reasonable bet for the title. Four points adrift of Brendan Rodgers’ Celtic the Ibrox side had the saving grace of two games in hand until they threw the advantage away. They lost the first game in Dingwall to Ross County then failed to find a way through against Dundee in a goalless draw at Dens Park.

By the time they turned around a two goal deficit against the Dark Blues in their final Ibrox home game it was too little, too late. Celtic rattled five goals past Kilmarnock the following night and won their 12th championship in 13 seasons and faith in Clement was draining fast.

An unused substitute as Celtic won the Scottish Cup final with a late Adam Idah goal, Jack delayed his holiday plans to hang back in Glasgow and prepare for a trip to the Euros with Scotland. Despite asking the question - repeatedly - he still had no idea what the future held.

“There were talks ongoing for months and months. It looked like a deal might be happening, then it wasn’t happening.

“You know what it’s like. Managers start having a certain way of communicating with you.

“I went to see him two or three times to say, ‘okay what’s happening here?’

“I wanted to plan for the future and every time it was, ‘oh, we don’t know yet, the club has not made a decision. It’s not my decision.’

“All I wanted was an honest answer. I felt that, when I was fit and well I was still capable of doing a job for sure.

“There were just certain things that made me think my time was coming to an end.”.

As it turned out his last appearance for Rangers came in a 2-2 draw against Benfica in the last 16 of the Europa League in Lisbon in March. A late replacement for Tom Lawrence in the Stadium of Light, a muscle injury ruled him out until he returned to fitness at the end of the season. Even then he didn’t play.

His surprise inclusion in Steve Clarke’s Scotland squad for the Euros in Germany was a reward for his dogged loyalty and performances at international level. He felt none of that payback coming from Philippe Clement.

“I was training for a couple of weeks after the season finished because I wanted to keep ticking over for Euros.

“It was then that he (Clement) phoned me and asked for 10 minutes to speak to me.

“He came in to the training centre and he said that the club had made a decision to go younger and I had suffered a few injuries over my time and that hadn’t helped me with the people above who had doubts.

“He said they wanted to go down a young route and get most of the experienced players out.

“And my comeback to him was, ‘do you think that is the best way to go?’

“A club like Rangers can not just sign a team of players who are 20 or 21 or 22 and expect them to be ready for the expectation and the pressure and the European stage.

“I’ve always felt that, to be successful at Rangers, you need a core who can be around the changing room and lead it. Even if they don’t play every week.

“But he wanted to go young and it didn’t turn out too well for him.”

“That time under Clement left a bad taste - the way he was going about things at the end.”

Jack had known nothing beyond the narrow horizons of Scottish football. Joining Aberdeen’s pro youth system at the age of eight, he rose to become captain of his hometown club. When he took advantage of freedom of contract to sign a three year deal with Rangers in 2017 some took his choice of club badly. His parents’ home address in Aberdeen was posted online accompanied by brainless threats.

“You know what? I grew up a Rangers fan as a young boy and the move wasn’t difficult for me personally.

“I know that the clubs are huge rivals and people take that personally, but I still hold Aberdeen in the highest regard. There was no ill feeling towards the club at all.

“Making the move was always a football decision to go to a new level and play in front of 50,000 people in Europe with a better training facility at the time.

“Off the pitch it brought a lot of stuff and hype media wise, of course it did.

“I’m not going to lie, I felt that pressure when I went back to Pittodrie. Everyone is against you.

“My family stay in the north east and they probably got a bit more of that than I did.

“There were maybe people at Aberdeen who looked at me differently for moving to Rangers, I don’t know.”

One of those who took news of the move to Ibrox badly, ironically, was his Aberdeen manager at the time. One Derek McInnes esq.

“Derek told me that after we played Rangers Pedro Caixinha was in giving it, ‘were going to take your players.’

“Derek had a wee chat with me asking what I was planning. He gave me the captaincy at the club and wanted to build the team around me.

“I loved my time with Derek. Working with him was one of the most enjoyable periods of my career.

“We had a wee bit of a fall out towards the end of the season because he was desperate for me to stay with Aberdeen.

“I wanted to move on and develop my career away from the club, but we are brand new now.”

There was a time, shortly after his own arrival at Ibrox in 2017, when it seemed that McInnes would join him in Glasgow. Jack was told by former Aberdeen teammates that the deal was done until a late u-turn.

McInnes stayed put at Pittodrie, only leaving when he was dismissed in 2021. He found a route to Ibrox eventually - via Kilmarnock and Hearts - while the club which fired him goes through managers like Donald Trump sweats his way through MAGA caps.

Involved with Aberdeen for 17 years Jack thinks the decision to part company with McInnes was a mistake.

“Derek was always made for being at a big club and having that demand on him.

“He knows the league and he knows how to get the job done. And when I look at Aberdeen they have never been able to replace him.

“I think back to the team he assembled when I was there, with Kenny McLean, Adam Rooney, Graeme Shinnie, Jonny Hayes, Niall McGinn, Mark Reynolds, Andy Considine, Shay Logan. Even James Maddison came in on loan for a time.

“We had great characters and we were always finishing second in the league and getting to semi finals and finals every year and yet being captain the whole vibe outside was, ‘we’re not good enough, we cannot compete.’ It was always negative.

“But we were up against Brendan Rodgers and a strong Celtic squad.

“And I don’t think that Aberdeen team that we had will be matched for years to come.

“I don’t know what direction the club wants to go in now or what kind of recruitment they go for.

“It’s mix and match, here, there and everywhere. Managers go from Stephen Glass to Jim Goodwin and Neil Warnock to Stephen Robinson. Yet when I look back at my time with Del it was so settled.”

After two seasons with Turkish club Esenler Erokspor Jack is enjoying some down time back in Scotland. His relationship with McInnes is back on a firm footing and he uses the gym facilities at Auchenhowie to keep fit while he waits for the right offer to get back playing. He is open minded on what comes next.

“I want to play on. I am only 34 and I still feel that I have a bit to give.

“There is no real plan, but I have had a few discussions here and there at a decent enough level with some teams. I want to wait and see what comes up, it needs to be the right place at the right time.

“I am not arrogant about where I play or what I want to do, I have had a good career so far. But I want something that excites me and gives me something to look forward to.”

When the news broke that Jack was using Rangers facilities to keep fit, a post from his former manager Steven Gerrard in Instagram almost broke the internet.

“Put him in the middle,” wrote the England legend. “Proper player.”

“I think that ship has sailed,” says Jack, with a laugh. “I loved my time at the club and have some amazing memories.

“I think Stevie had just seen that I had been training in there and it was a tongue in cheek comment.

“I have said before that the time under Stevie Gerrard was the best football I played in my career.

“Everything he brought when he came in opened my eyes to a new world.”

By  his own admission, he made the most of the talent he had. If anything there were times, under Gerrard, when he pushed his body farther than harder than he should have and it hurt him.

“If I could do more I would do it. If I could train harder I would train harder. If I could run more in a game I did it.

“That’s what the gaffer loved about me. I would never say no.

“I would never say, ‘I’m not training’ or ‘i’m not playing.’

“And that maybe cost me a few injuries over the years.”

Clubs looking for an old head with a ferocious work rate should know that he now feels fit and ready to go. He wants to play while preparing for the next phase.

“It has always fascinated me, managing and having your own team. I want to go down and avenue and see where that leads me…”