Ferguson and Bellamy the exiles back on main street

Old Firm derby: Scotland captain returns to the team and the occasion he loves as Rangers build for the future

Glaswegian is up there with Welsh as one of the world's most impenetrable tongues. Perhaps that is why Barry Ferguson will feel a kindred spirit when he meets up with Craig Bellamy again at Parkhead today.

Glaswegian is up there with Welsh as one of the world's most impenetrable tongues. Perhaps that is why Barry Ferguson will feel a kindred spirit when he meets up with Craig Bellamy again at Parkhead today.

Both are experts on the subject of exile. One has just ended his, the other is just starting. Ferguson only realised that he had taken a step down once he left Rangers for Blackburn Rovers 18 months ago. Bellamy may yet come to embrace the notion that exchanging Newcastle United for Celtic will enhance his reputation.

The pair swapped the Premiership for the Scottish Premier League within hours of each other on transfer-deadline night three weeks ago. If Bellamy's twice-delayed debut has thrust the on-loan striker into the most testing initiation of all, an Old Firm encounter, for Ferguson it is a return to an occasion he loves.

The Scotland captain scored a sublime free-kick in the 2002 Scottish Cup final against Celtic to get his hands on the trophy. He is the only person in the Rangers side today who knows what it is like to silence Parkhead, having played in the last team to win there, five years ago. Yet Alex McLeish did not pay £4.5 million to reminisce about the past; he did so because he believes that bringing back the prodigal son can usher in a brighter future for Rangers. The dressing room at Ibrox has changed a lot since Ferguson left in August 2003. Plenty of players have come and gone, testimony to the barren campaign of last season. Even this term, the revolving door has rarely halted: Jean-Alain Boumsong's £8m move to Newcastle allowed McLeish to buy back Ferguson, along with Thomas Buffel from Feyenoord and Sotiryos Kyrgiakos from Panathinaikos.

The Greek defender will be the latest to add his accent to what has become the Old Firm tower of Babel over the last decade. Yet for Ferguson, who grew up watching his older brother Derek play alongside a certain Graeme Souness in the Rangers midfield, the game remains the symbol of home comfort that taunted him while he was at Ewood Park.

"I am looking forward to it - it's something I have really missed," admitted Ferguson. "Obviously I have watched some Old Firm games on television. That was strange at first. I think we are quietly confident, played really well in the last couple of games, but we know it's going to be a tough battle."

The Old Firm landscape has changed a lot since Ferguson made his debut as a teenager under Dick Advocaat in 1998. Martin O'Neill's arrival at Celtic two years later shattered Rangers' omnipotence - Ferguson was sent off in the 6-2 defeat at Parkhead in O'Neill's derby baptism - and heightened the pressure across the city.

In Ferguson's absence last season, McLeish's side finished 17 points behind their great rivals. While Celtic's postponed match at Inverness last week allowed Rangers - who have played one game more - to come to Parkhead on a level footing, the reality is they could soon be six points adrift if they lose today.

"Celtic ran away with the League last year - they were the best team by far," acknowledged Ferguson. "Last season was difficult for everyone at Rangers. Martin O'Neill has built a good team at Celtic over the last four or five years. However, I think this squad we've got has a sense of identity. The new players, like Kyrgiakos and Buffel, not to mention Dado Prso and Nacho Novo, who came last summer, know what's happening. All the new boys know about it, they read about it and the likes of myself, Fernando Ricksen and Alex Rae speak about it. They know what it means.

"Celtic are tried and trusted. But our manager is trying to build a younger squad here. That's one of the main reasons why I came back to Rangers. He wants to build a squad for the future."

O'Neill has similar aspirations at Celtic. After the fitful contribution of Henri Camara and Juninho's lack of impact, it was almost certain that the manager's next recruit would be a fellow Celt, one who embraced the challenge with more vigour than the Senegalese or the Brazilian. Step forward, the so-called bad boy from Cardiff. Ferguson, though, has only good to say about Bellamy. When the Scot's knee was shattered at St James' Park last season in a tackle with Gary Speed, it was the Welshman who comforted him.

"Bellamy was one of the people that came into the dressing room to check on me," Ferguson recalls. "He'd had a few knee injuries himself. It was nice of him to come and see how I was. He's always impressed me. People go on about his attitude but I like that. He's confident and cocky but he's produced it on the pitch."

If Bellamy does so today, the adulation could persuade him to remain at Celtic for good and fill the void in Parkhead's soul left by the iconic Henrik Larsson.