The Rangers board asked me who we needed to get back on top and then I phoned him myself – Kenny Miller

Standards had slipped at Rangers when I left the club in 2018.

There weren’t enough winners. Guys who knew what it would take to get Rangers back on top. So when I was asked what was required I told the board they had to try to sign certain players. And Steven Gerrard was one of them. I even tried to do it myself. I called Davo and asked if he’d come back. But he was playing every week in the Premier League for Southampton.

Of course, he reiterated his love for Rangers and what the club meant to him – but the time wasn’t right. Thankfully for everyone at Ibrox, Steven Gerrard made it happen 18 months later. And it’s no surprise that, since then, standards have been raised. Rangers are now winning trophies, competing for titles and are a force again in Europe. And Davis has played a huge part in that.

Gerrard did his bit as well when he was appointed as manager. So did Allan McGregor – another player I urged the board to welcome back six years ago. Back then, they wanted to know how to compete with Celtic again. My answer was to go and get the likes of Davis and McGregor. It wasn’t just about what they’d give you on the pitch. It was more.

It was about driving those standards and bringing back a winning mentality. For me, that was lost from the minute Rangers ended up in Scottish football’s bottom league back in 2012. They needed the right type of person. Guys who had lived it, breathed it – and put silverware in the cabinet. Davis was the epitome of that.

It’s why he’ll be a real loss now that he has announced his retirement from the game. We both signed at Ibrox in the summer of 2008, even though Davo had been on loan for six months before and helped them reach the UEFA Cup Final in Manchester. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve probably appreciated Davo even more. First and foremost, what a footballer.

He wasn’t under-rated by any means. But Davo was maybe understated. He was never flamboyant or the star. It’s just not him. But do you know what made him such an incredible player? Ninety nine times out of 100 he made the right decision. That might be a simple five-yard pass to open up space or a 10-yard run forward to make himself available for a pass. Davo did the right thing time and again. His footballing intelligence is off the scale.

That’s why he’s had such longevity in the game. Even in his late 30s he was still making an impact. When Rangers played Eintracht Frankfurt in the Europa League Final two years ago, it was one of the biggest games in the club’s history. When Davo came off the bench with 20 minutes to go, he actually helped Rangers gain control of the match going into extra-time.

By that age he had adapted his game. When we played together between 2008 and 2011, he was box-to-box. Walter Smith even asked him to play wide right because we had Barry Ferguson and Pedro Mendes in the middle.

Davo never complained and usually was still the best player on the park. Eventually, he became the controller of the Rangers team. And a decade later he was still doing it that night in Seville. Walter loved him and he’ll go down as one of the great man’s best ever signings. In two spells at Rangers, Davo won four titles, three Scottish Cups and three League Cups.

Steven Davis and Kris Boyd

He’s one of only five men in the club’s history to play in two European finals. That’s an incredible career, by anyone’s standards. And I’ve not even mentioned his record-breaking 140 caps for Northern Ireland. You can’t underestimate how important it is to have players like that in your dressing-room.

Too often, older players are discarded. But at Rangers you need top professionals. Davo – in his own way – made everyone aware of what it meant to play for Rangers. That’s why it was vital for Gerrard to bring him back to the club in 2019. The team were going for 55 and he was a guy who’d been there and done it. He’d had serial success at Rangers.

That’s what he brought on his return. Off the pitch, Davo is a quiet guy but we got on brilliantly. I loved playing with him because he made me better. That year we signed, we were chasing Celtic at the top of the league and after the split we played them at Ibrox. We HAD to win – even if we’d drawn, we wouldn’t have won that league.

But within that group of players under Walter, there was an understanding of what it would take to get the job done. Davo popped up with the winning goal – his first in an Old Firm derby – and I got the assist.

It was a big moment that propelled us to the title and set him on his way to becoming a Rangers legend.