Adam remembers best and worst of times on his return to Ibrox

The Reds play a friendly against the Scottish champions at Ibrox with the 25-year-old admitting his nine-year association with the club had its fair share of ups and downs.

Adam joined Rangers aged 15 in December 2000, making his debut just over three years later, but was sent out on loan spells to Ross County and St Mirren before returning for a further two and a half years ahead of his move to Blackpool and this summer’s switch to Merseyside.

“[There were] ups and downs really. I had some great times there but also some hard times and that was with not playing, which was a difficult period,” said the Scotland international. “That’s the way it goes sometimes and football changes so much nowadays. I’m glad I started there and the coaches I had over the years helped me to progress to where I am today.

“But the friendly is certainly one I’m looking forward to because it’s not very often you get the opportunity to go back and play against your former club.”

With no European football this season, Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish has taken the opportunity to slot in an additional game to help his squad remain competitive. And Adam, who was impressive in Saturday’s 1-1 draw at home to Manchester United, hopes they can use it to continue to build momentum after being shaken by back-to-back Barclays Premier League defeats last month.

“Hopefully it will be a good game and we can get the right result, which is important because winning breeds confidence,” he said. “If we can win that it will give us a boost going into Saturday’s game with Norwich.”

Gregg Wylde admits he would love to follow in the footsteps of Adam by carving out a successful career in the Barclays Premier League but insists he has no plans to quit Rangers just yet.

Wylde harbours aspirations of playing at the highest level, but the 20-year-old winger – who signed a five-year deal earlier in the season – is more than happy to continue his development at Ibrox for the time being.

He said: “Charlie had been here since he was a wee boy and now he has moved on to better things with Blackpool and Liverpool. Hopefully I can do that in my career but I’m happy to play with Rangers and that’s the most important thing. I’m just concentrating on playing for Rangers because I’m a Rangers fan. Hopefully I can stay here for longer.”

Wylde believes the mid-season friendly at Ibrox will be a worthwhile exercise. He said: “We can take a lot out of it. We played Chelsea at the start of the season and I was unfortunate not to play in it but hopefully I can get a shot tomorrow and get a run-out against some of the best players in the Premiership.”

Rangers will be aiming for a vast improvement when Dalglish’s men coming calling after being held to a last-gasp draw by St Mirren in the Clydesdale Bank Premier League on Saturday.

Wylde added: “It was a bit of a shock, but we just need to move on and look forward to Sunday’s game against Hearts and hopefully pick up the three points.”

Wylde’s views were echoed by assistant manager Kenny McDowall, who insists there is no point dwelling on the result, which denied Rangers a 10th consecutive SPL victory.

He said: “We had a look at it on Saturday night but you’ve got to move on. We’ve got another game on Tuesday, a big game, so we will move on to that. There is no point looking back.”

McDowall believes the visit of Liverpool will act as the ideal opportunity for some players to stake a claim for a place in Ally McCoist’s plans, including skipper David Weir, who has so far been unable to force his way back into the team after recovering from injury.

He said: “It’s a great opportunity for some of the guys who have not been getting match-time at first-team level.”