Bruno Alves was dropped by Scottish Premiership giants Rangers as soon as Ross McCrorie was fit enough to start at Ibrox.
Rangers warmed up for their Scottish Cup semi-final clash with Celtic in style on Saturday.
Kenny Miller, Alfredo Morelos, Jamie Murphy and Daniel Candeias were on target as The Gers cruised past Dundee 4-0 at Ibrox but the clean sheet will have pleased manager Graeme Murty as much as their productivity at the other end of the pitch.
And it is no coincidence that Rangers were unbreached for the first time since February with young Ross McCrorie returning to the heart of the defence.
The 20-year-old made his first appearance in 2018 after recovering from injury and lasted more than an hour before cramping up and being given a well deserved break. It was veteran Portuguese Bruno Alves who replaced McCrorie after 65 minutes, having initially lost his place to the homegrown talent.
But could this be a foreshadow of the future at Ibrox?
Alves still has another year on his contract but has been largely disappointing in an erratic debut season, and has not exactly hidden his frustrations when being left out of the team on a regular basis after Murty replaced Pedro Caixinha back in October.
Under Murty, it seems that youth and potential is the order of the day. And it would be a slight surprise if Alves, who is 17 years McCrorie’s senior, is still a Rangers player next season.
McCrorie is waiting in the wings to replace Alves, not only for bread and butter league clashes with Dundee, but on a permanent basis.
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