Rangers hero on 'reinventing' himself after Ibrox exit

The former Ibrox captain was suspended in 2009, stripped of his captaincy, and allowed to return only for the final league game and Scottish Cup final. He then left to join Birmingham City.

On The Warm-Up, Ferguson said: "I had finished my Rangers career; I had ballsed up. I had no one else to blame but myself. That’s my biggest regret in my career.

"I wanted to finish my career at Rangers."

At 31, he had hoped to stay at Ibrox, earn a testimonial, and start coaching within the youth system. He said: "It ended the way I didn’t want it to end, but through nobody else’s fault but my own.

"Rangers made the decision, and rightly so, they suspended me."

Ferguson praised Walter Smith for including him in the squad towards the season's end, saying: "To be fair to Walter, he didn’t have to bring me in towards the end of the season.

"He brought me in for the last day of the season and allowed me to lift the trophy with David Weir, then the Scottish Cup final the week after, then I knew my time was up."

Ferguson acknowledged that the fallout from his actions affected his options after leaving Rangers, with clubs hesitant to sign him. He said: "It hurt me because I thought I might not get a club here.

"But I’m not going to blame anyone else here. It was up to me. I still had a lot of football in me. I was only 31, 32 at that stage. I was a bad person then.

"I had to go away and reinvent myself."