David Weir: Three years as Rangers stop-gap

Now, a veritable football lifetime on – or more than 150 appearances, a league championship win, two Scottish Cup successes and a League Cup triumph, and Uefa Cup final and half a dozen defence partners later, if you prefer – Weir is still at Ibrox, still performing the same steady job for a team that his presence has helped make the foremost in the country.

Four months shy of his 40th birthday, it is remarkable that Weir continues to do what he does. Even in this era when standards have dropped off alarmingly, and, especially at Rangers, there is a black hole where their finances used to be. None of that in itself explains away Weir's "stickaboutability", his successful jousting with the ageing process that will put paid to him in the end, but might not even by the end of this season. Predictably, for a man whose existence is an exercise in being unassuming and ordinary, Gordon Strachan's porridge and bananas diet or other old-age players' trust in yoga or herbal remedies doesn't figure in what keeps him ticking over. "There is nothing quirky in what he does; he is just really straightforward and dedicated," says his manager Smith.

Yet, maybe that in itself is a deviation from the norm. Weir, more advanced in years than any previous title-winning captain of Scottish top-flight club in modern times, admits it is fortunate his body has proved willing. But even more vital is that his spirit has never ben weak. He loves playing, watching and talking about football. He has the same enthusiasm for his vocation as he ever did; the same pride in playing and performing that has served him so well across two decades.

"There is no great secret to it," he says, although he believes, looking back, that playing at Everton alongside Dave Watson and Richard Gough when they were 39 allowed him to see "in the flesh" that such longevity was possible. "I have the mentality that I still want to do it, and enjoy it. But also, I have a manager who wants to pick me, has confidence in me and doesn't think 'oh, he's 36, 37, 38, 39, or whatever'. I have a manager who puts that to one side, and that's a big part of why I'm still able to do it."

But it is a chicken and egg situation. Smith is no ageist because Weir has betrayed no real signs that age is withering him psychologically, never mind physically. "You have to have that desire to battle away with the players in your squad for the right to play, whether you are 19 or 29. You have to have the pride that you want to play and that you are the best to do so," says Weir. "You want to play because of that, and not because you are the only option. That is a big thing. You have to have the mentality whereby that becomes your mindset, so you do the right things to get your chance, and have the desire to keep going once you get the chance."

Weir says the games become less enjoyable you age because "you worry about them more". "You say to yourself: 'Is this going to be may last game? Is this going to happen, is that going to happen?' When you are younger you just go and play. It is all about scoring goals, or winning games. When you are older you just think about the downsides. I don't know if that is me or it's an age thing. You doubt yourself every bad game you play, every time you don't meet your standards. But I've always done that, since I was 25.

"That is where the mental side of it comes in. It is important to remember you had bad games when you were 25, had bad games when you were 30. You made mistakes then and people ran away from you. It is not just because of you're age. The biggest battle you have is with yourself."

Weir's career could end in a matter of months. It could go on for a matter of years, theoretically. He doesn't want to say it will be his choice to continue because "it is all right saying you want to play on but if there is nobody wants you to play there isn't much point".

He wouldn't close his mind to going down the leagues if there was no offer from Rangers and certainly "isn't looking forward to the day it happens". He says: "It won't be too long before it happens, but for now I'll keep fighting it."

Then he hopes management beckons, which he knows won't replace playing. Weir is just pleased that he didn't rush in to retirement, as friends did. And later regretted. "After six months or a year, they've realised being on the golf course, or shopping with the wife, or dropping and picking up the kids at school is all right for a few weeks then not all it is cracked up to be and would rather be back playing."

It is Weir's wife, who has remained at their Cheshire with their four children throughout the past three years, he knows deserves the credit for allowing him to put himself first in determining how he raged against the dying of the night in his football days. "That has been the hardest part," he says. "She has let me get away with it, enjoy my work and live away from home as much as I do. I have to admire her for giving me that opportunity. Obviously, with the four kids, I have probably been a bit selfish for that aspect. I'm sure I'll get it on the chin when I go back."

Weir accepts he would have been back by now were it not for the fact that Rangers are in some sort of suspended animation in a monetary sense. "In an ideal world Rangers wouldn't have a 39-year-old centre-half but finances have dictated that," says Weir, who has been partnering 18-year-old Danny Wilson precisely because of those same finances. "I'm just happy to get the benefit of that and I don't think it is disrespectful to me, that's a fact. I'm realistic enough to know that, going back five or ten years, it wouldn't have happened. The way things are in football, not just in Scotland, clubs have to find ways and means of getting players on the park. Whether they are younger or older."

In terms of his birth certificate, Weir is one of the oldest. But in his approach he is younger than many players half is age. And his mind is winning over any physical matters. For now.