MARVIN Andrews has told Rangers’ summer signings they will need to develop a winning mentality in order to be successful at Ibrox – but tipped assistant manager Alex Rae to ensure they do.

Trinidad and Tobago centre half Andrews was immediately struck by the high standards which would be expected of him after he made the move from Livingston, who he had helped to lift the League Cup, to the Glasgow giants back in 2004.

In fact, it only took a single training session at Auchenhowie, during which manager Alex McLeish berated him for playing a misplaced pass, for him to realise that he needed to raise his game considerably to feature in the first team.

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“When you go and play for a club of the magnitude of Rangers it is a step up,” he said. “I was suddenly at a club where all they knew was winning. Anything else is considered failure. In my head I had to say, ‘Wow! I have to change’.

“I had been at Raith Rovers and Livingston before that. You could draw and lose the odd game at those clubs and it was no big deal. But when you draw never mind lose a game at Rangers it is a disaster.

“The penny dropped for me on my first day in training when I played a bad pass. Alex McLeish said to me, ‘Marv, you’re not at Livingston any more’. And that was just after a bad pass in training.”

Andrews still follows the fortunes of his own club and is optimistic that new recruits like Connor Barron, Vaclav Cerny and Robin Propper can flourish in the coming months and help the Govan outfit to lift silverware domestically and excel in the Europa League.

However, he believes they will have to embrace the expectations which will be on their shoulders every time they take to the field to do so.

He said: “I always say to people, ‘You might have talent and ability and all the rest of it, but you need a certain mindset when you go to Rangers or any big club’. Your mindset has to change.

“Every time you put on the shirt you have to win. It doesn’t matter if you are playing Real Madrid or Barcelona, when you play for Rangers you have to believe you can win.

“Yes, I knew it wasn’t humanely possible, but that is the way you have to think. That is what the club is built on when you look at the history of the club, from where they were when they were formed to where they are at this present moment in time.

“It helped me to have that mindset. But I think most of it was down to my belief in God and trying to become a better player, not only physically but also mentally.”

(Image: SNS Group = Aubrey Washington) Andrews felt that Barry Ferguson, who has written the foreword to his new book, Believer in Blue: Football, My Life, My Faith, typified the attitude which was required to be a Rangers player. 

“Barry came back in the January of my first season at Rangers and I developed a friendship with him,” he said. “I used to watch him in training all the time. He hated losing, even if it was just a five-a-side match. If he lost he wouldn’t talk to you for the rest of the afternoon.

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“That was the winning mentality he had. Some people would maybe have looked him and thought he was arrogant or difficult or whatever. I looked at him and thought, ‘That is the mindset I need’.”

Andrews was pleased when manager Philippe Clement appointed his old team mate Alex Rae, who he played alongside when Rangers won the Scottish title on Helicopter Sunday in 2005, as his assistant manager and thinks that his presence on the backroom staff will help the new arrivals to settle. 

“Alex had a phenomenal football career,” he said. “He went through a bad time with alcohol when he was playing. Look at him now. He is like a whole new human being. He is part of the Rangers coaching staff. He is such a good friend and it is so good to see him being part of it.

“He is a Rangers man through and through. He will be a good help to Philippe Clement. He is experienced, he will put in his two cents where he can and try to help him navigate through this difficult time and be successful come May.”

Believer in Blue: Football, My Life, My Faith by Marvin Andrews with David Mason is published by Pitch Publishing and is available to buy now.