Former Rangers winger Chris Burke has paid tribute to Ibrox kitman Jimmy Bell, who has died aged 69.
A membership icon, Bell joined within the Eighties, initially as a coach driver earlier than assuming duty over membership package.
Often called a meticulous employee and a proud determine who beloved Gers via thick and skinny, tributes have poured in from present supervisor Gio van Bronckhorst and his gamers to membership legends of years passed by.
Burke, nonetheless going sturdy at Kilmarnock, was a wide-eyed teenager when he first met Bell as he started his Rangers profession within the 2000s.
"He was an amazing man and an amazing human being," he informed Go Radio.
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"I used to assist him rather a lot with the package on the academy. I bear in mind we used to stroll to the subway and get off at Ibrox, and I might assist him with the package earlier than the primary staff got here in.
"I feel he took a liking of me as a result of he knew I had that work ethic to assist him out – he was unbelievable.
"He beloved an arm wrestle – I feel each new participant who got here in he would take a look at them with an arm wrestle as a result of he was a powerful character."
Nothing sums up the person Burke describes as a "father determine" than the derby day gauntlet the pair of them ran at Parkhead – the younger winger's first Previous Agency expertise.
He continued: "I bear in mind my first Previous Agency sport away, I used to be serving to him out and that opened up my eyes to the rivalry. Again then you definitely did not get plenty of stewards and stuff that will help you off the bus.
"We had to return to the bus to get additional package and the quantity of stick I used to be getting in entrance of my face, as a younger child I used to be scared at that time.
"I simply bear in mind him defending me. Each time a Celtic fan came visiting to provide us stick he would block the way in which. That is what he did, he protected.
"He was type of like a father determine – not simply to me however the different younger gamers. He at all times beloved a Scottish participant coming via and doing effectively.
"I am unable to communicate extremely sufficient of him. Some say he was reserved, some say he was like Marmite. What he did do, he judged you from afar however he would allow you to in for those who had been an excellent human being.
"My ideas and prayers are with him."