DANNY WILSON admits he is eager to show Rangers supporters just how much he has developed as a player and a personality after returning to Ibrox on a three-year contract.
Wilson left the club for Liverpool in 2010 for an initial fee of £2m after just one season in the first-team and was farmed out to Blackpool and Bristol City on loan before joining Hearts and captaining them to last season's SPFL Championship title.
The 23-year-old believes he has gone back to his first club as a far more polished performer and is determined to prove his worth by helping take the team back to the top flight at the first time of asking.
"If I look at myself now compared to when I was 18, I am a much better professional," said Wilson.
"I have a lot more experience of life, in general, and I am grateful for this opportunity to come back and show people how I have grown as a player and as a person.
"Whenever I think of this club, there is a real warm feeling about it. It is five years now and it feels like a long time, but to get an opportunity at 23 with, hopefully, a lot still to achieve in my career is a great thing and something I am very grateful for.
"I hope we can start achieving straight away. We have our goal to go up this year and it is so important for the club for that to happen.
"I am looking forward to being part of a successful club and getting us back to where we belong.
"I feel fortunate to have been asked to come back and play. Just walking about, it brings back memories and I hope I can make some good memories going forward.
"There is a lot of optimism about just now with the manager and the board. It is something I am looking forward to being a part of.
"We have a lot of work to do to get the club back to where it needs to be, but it is work worth doing."
Wilson won promotion with Hearts last term before invoking a release clause in his contract, but he insists he has no problem returning to the Championship with Rangers and attempting to do it all again.
He admits that he was more interested in hearing that the problems that have scarred the Ibrox club over the past three years or more are not likely to raise their heads again now that a new board and a new management team are in place.
"I wasn't really sure what I was going to do when I was leaving Hearts, so I was interested straight away when I received the call, having been here before," stated Wilson in an interview with Rangers TV.
"The important thing was that they said it is a new step going forward, rather than looking at what has happened previously.
"In an ideal world, Rangers would be in the top flight, but, as it is, we need to put in the work to get ourselves there.
"It is not something I am overly fussed about. I was there last season and we managed to go and I hope for more of the same this year."
Wilson played beside David Weir at the heart of the Rangers defence and will now have him as his assistant manager, but he insists that the coaching staff was not the main reason he jumped at the opportunity to return to Rangers.
"He was a massive influence on me when I was so young," said Wilson. "I am obviously glad he is here, but it wasn't a big factor as Rangers are a massive pull.
"It is a different situation with him on the coaching staff. I am glad to have a friendly face here, but I am sure he will have different roles to take care of now.
Wilson has also been impressed by the new manager, Mark Warburton, in their early conversations and always believed the former Brentford boss would be a good capture for Rangers.
"When he got the job, I thought it was a good appointment and I was even happier when he gave me the call to come in," said Wilson.
"I have only spoken to him briefly, but I have been very impressed with what he had to say."
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