Rangers have confirmed the exit of Josh McPake with both parties mutually agreeing to terminate the winger's contract.
The Scotland youth international spent last season on loan at Queen’s Park, but fell out of favour as Owen Coyle’s side battled it out for promotion.
McPake was tipped for a bright future at Ibrox when he emerged through the Auchenhowie youth ranks as a talented teenager and he made several loan moves in an attempt to gain vital first team experience.
Spells at Dundee, Morton and Harrogate Town were followed by a new three-year deal in 2021 and he has since spent time with Morecambe and Tranmere Rovers after finding his route to Ibrox blocked in recent campaigns.
The frontman made his Ibrox debut under Steven Gerrard as he came off the bench during the Europa League qualifying victory over St Joseph's in 2019 but failed to hold down a regular squad berth as his dreams of becoming a first team star have gradually faded.
After exiting the club, McPake wrote on Twitter: "Just want to thank everyone at Rangers including the the players, the fans and all the staff that have looked after me for all these years.
"Loved every minute of being at this club since the moment I walked through the doors Came as a young boy and left a man. Thank you."
Meanwhile, Michael Beale will postpone his inquest into Rangers humbling Champions League demise until after Sunday’s crunch Old Firm game at Ibrox.
Beale believes the Celtic game offers the perfect opportunity to bounce back.
He said: “Of course it does. If we can go into the international break on the back of a win this weekend I think we are in a really good place.
“We will be able to assess this first period in terms of bringing in new players up to September.
“We will always want to improve in the way that we play, but as I say the last two league games we’ve had two cleans sheets, we’ve scored six goals, six different goalscorers, we’ve had the most shots in the league. So we are moving in the right direction.
“I must pick the bones out of Wednesday night at the right time. It would be remiss of me to do that in between Wednesday and this huge game on Sunday.
“It’s important that we dust ourselves down and we show a big response as a team and as a club.
“It’s a great opportunity and the eyes of everybody will be on us for sure.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here