Rangers' De Bruyne takes centre stage - even if some want him to shut up

It was a cold Friday night in Dunfermline, no-one’s idea of any fun. Cameron referenced this difficult introduction in the matchday programme for Rangers’ impressive Champions League qualifying win over Viktoria Plzen on Tuesday night, when he was one of the stars of the show.

In a wide-ranging A-Z feature, where there’s a question for each letter of the alphabet, he was asked - under N for ‘Newcomer’ – about his debut in professional football. “My first start was for Dundee against Dunfermline away,” he explained. “We were 2-0 down at half-time and I got taken off, so that was rubbish! I was 16 and it was really tough.”

In fact, he had already turned 17 although he made his debut for Dundee as a substitute in a League Cup win at Raith Rovers when 16 earlier that season. His age - 17 and three months is still young for the hurly burly of the Championship – was one of the mitigating factors in his full debut being cut so short. Manager James McPake later admitted he removed him because he didn’t deserve to be involved in the poor performance his more experienced teammates were managing to produce.

There was little chance he would suffer this fate earlier this week. Cameron made an assured first start for his new club. Only an injury picked up in a high energy first-half performance could have persuaded Russell Martin to stop Cameron re-appearing for the second half, when the playmaker continued to impress with his energy, intelligence and tidiness in possession. He was eventually replaced after 73 minutes to sustained applause.

“Played like a young Alex MacDonald – the highest praise I could give him,” one Rangers supporter told me afterwards with reference to someone regarded as the heartbeat of the Ibrox side in the 1970s.

The Rangers comments that irked Dundee fans

Cameron’s display might have been even more eye-catching were it not for his teammate Oliver Antman, an even newer signing, burning up the wing and contributing an assist in the 3-0 win. However, Cameron still earned praise. Most satisfying of all for him when one remembers he was signed on a pre-contract long before Martin arrived were the words of his manager, who raved about his "quality" and use of the ball.

Loose passes might not be associated with Cameron but it’s not a surprise, given he is still only 22, if loose words might occasionally afflict him. Expert at getting himself out of trouble in tight areas of the pitch, he talked himself into trouble on the eve of the fixture against the Czech Republic side.

Nominated to handled player media duties in what was a pretty strong indication that he would be in the team to face Plzen, Cameron remarked on the step up going from a “small club” – it’s fair to assume he meant “smaller club” - like Dundee to Rangers. In a different interview, this time for the BBC, he compounded this by suggesting it didn’t feel like he was a full-time footballer at Dundee compared with Rangers.

“To be honest, it’s been a totally different world I think; the speed of play and the intensity and everything is just totally different,” he said. “It’s almost like a different world for me, to be honest. It’s a different job now I am here: it’s a full-time footballer whereas it’s a bit different in Dundee.”

Former Dundee and Hibs player turned pundit Tam McManus was among those who picked up on this on X. “2nd time he has said something like this,” he wrote. “Pretty disrespectful to Dundee FC and the coaches who gave him the opportunity & platform to go and play for a bigger club.”

It’s understood Cameron regrets how these answers came across as he prepares to make his Ibrox league debut on Saturday evening in a game covered live on television by Premier Sports.

Reception likely to be split

It will surprise absolutely no one who the opposition are……Dundee. It’s how football tends to work. It means the little blond-haired midfielder – who younger Rangers fans have dubbed the Dundonian De Bruyne - will be the focus of even more attention just over 80 days after his brace against St Johnstone guaranteed Dundee’s Premiership safety and sparked a pitch invasion by joyous fans.

It’s fair to say his comments this week have not gone down well with many Dundee supporters. One of the more moderate posts on the inevitable Cameron pre-match thread on the main Dundee fans’ forum perhaps sums up the general feeling.

“I won’t boo him but no doubt others will and I can understand why,” one visitor commented. Others were more indignant. “Shut your little puss,” someone advises Cameron, the vehemence of which might also be rooted in something the player said after Dundee played Rangers at Ibrox in a League Cup last 16 tie last September.

Cameron was already being linked with a move away and was asked about where he envisaged that next step might be. He openly replied that playing somewhere like Rangers would appeal.

He later admitted the uncertainty about his future affected his form but he finished the season strongly, supplying the superbly threaded through ball for Scott Tiffoney to score an important goal in Cameron’s last appearance at Dens against Ross County. He was given a rousing ovation when substituted despite some coolness having been previously apparent following the news, announced somewhat unhelpfully in February, that he had signed a pre-contract deal at Rangers.

Dundee’s official farewell announcement in May was heartfelt, rightly so, as were Cameron’s comments in the same piece, where he mentioned how “proud” he was to have played so many games for the Dens Park club. The article also highlighted that the player, signed as a youth player after he had been let go by Dundee United, had scored “a magical dark blue number of 33 goals”. Magical because that was the number worn by Claudio Caniggia, who signed for the club aged 33 before leaving to join…..Rangers.

The Argentina legend even went AWOL from Dundee as he tried to force through the move. He was forgiven if there was anything to forgive. Likewise, Cameron, who is so much younger, ought to be granted the same grace. Still, the fuss won’t, one imagines, inhibit him as he bids to get one over his former teammates in a game where Rangers cannot afford to post anything less than a win against Steven Pressley’s already toiling visitors.