We were playing Celtic, and I got took to the side and told, 'Listen, it's too physical a game for you. We're not going to play you.' And I went away again and said to myself, 'Either throw the towel in, or go and prove these people wrong.' Two or three years later, you're beginning to chap the first-team door, and you're walking past [the people who said you wouldn't make it] and they're saying, 'I knew you were going to do it.'" Having trained with Rangers since 1991, Ferguson signed a professional contract upon finishing his education at Brannock High School in 1994. Aside from his brother, Ferguson's idol was Ian Durrant, who was still an important player when he joined the club. Playing career Club Rangers (first spell) Ferguson was promoted to the first-team squad for the 1996–97 season. He made his debut on the last day of that season against Hearts on 10 May 1997. He made a number of sporadic appearances the following season under manager Walter Smith's policy of easing him into the first team. Ferguson became a regular fixture in the first team during the 1998–99 season under new manager Dick Advocaat (displacing fellow youth graduate Charlie Miller). The Dutchman soon secured Ferguson on a long-term contract as he became an important member of the squad. He scored his first career goal in a League Cup match against Alloa Athletic on 18 August 1998, and played against his brother on three occasions during that season when Rangers faced Dunfermline Athletic, with a 20-year-old Ferguson scoring his first league goal in the match at East End Park. His brother, then 31 years old, made his last appearance at Ibrox in the reverse fixture. Injury prevented him from being involved in the 1998–99 season run-in as the club achieved the treble; Ferguson watched the 1999 Scottish Cup Final from the stands as Rangers won by a single goal, scored by Rod Wallace three minutes into the second half. Ferguson was so influential the following season that he was given an extended six-year deal at Rangers in October 1999. He was named the Scottish Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year for 1999–2000, a season in which Rangers retained the Premier League and Scottish Cup, beating Aberdeen in the final. Ferguson received minor facial injuries after engaging in a drunken hotel brawl following a 6–2 defeat to