Charlie Adam hit the big-time in his career with spells at Rangers and Liverpool propelling him to 26 Scotland caps.
However, no-one can ever accuse Adam of being a ‘big-time Charlie.’
Since returning home to see out his career at Dundee, Adam has become a Dark Blues talisman and is a strong proponent of all levels of Scottish football.
He’s inspiring youngsters to make the breakthrough at Dundee – including Max Anderson – but his reach goes way beyond the Kilmac Stadium.
Just 17 miles up the road at Arbroath, midfielder Ben Williamson is aiming to take the ‘Charlie Adam-route’ to the Rangers first team after a hugely successful loan spell at Gayfield.
Williamson has started every single Championship match since joining Arbroath on loan in January and scored his first senior goal in Red Lichties’ 4-0 win over Ayr United last weekend.
Now he wants to clinch Arbroath’s place in the Championship before returning to Glasgow to try to force his way into contention at the newly-crowned Scottish Premiership champions.
It will be a tall order for Williamson, at 19, to make the grade at a club he has been at for over a decade.
But Adam’s experience of becoming a first-team regular at Ibrox aged 20 – after lower league stints at Ross County and St Mirren – are driving the Arbroath loanee on.
“When you leave the Old Firm to come to a smaller club and prove you can cut it at a part-time level you can go on and have a good career.”
Williamson is also inspired by the words of praise he received from Adam after he won a man-of-the-match award following his midfield tussle with the Dundee talisman in front of the BBC Scotland cameras in January.
“Ben is a very good player,” said Adam in the wake of that 1-1 draw at Arbroath. “It’s a huge decision for him to go on loan from the Old Firm to Arbroath but Dick Campbell will make him come out of his comfort zone.
“Whether you are at Rangers or Celtic, it’s easy to sit there and be comfortable but you have to come to a part-time level and challenge yourself. That takes character.
“When you leave the Old Firm to come to a smaller club and prove you can cut it at a part-time level you can go on and have a good career.”
Adam followed up his interview with a private words of praise to Williamson.
Arbroath 4 – 0 Ayr United – Ben Williamson 24th min@benwilliamsonnn who had been denied the opener by a brilliant save from PJ Morrison in the 7th minute didn't give up and scored his first senior goal in the 24th minute with a well taken strike! pic.twitter.com/xtNLLSkUs2
— Arbroath FC (@ArbroathFC) April 18, 2021
“After the game with Dundee Charlie messaged me,” said Williamson.
“We had a good battle on the pitch and I need to take everything he said to me on board.
“He’s been to the very top of football and that’s where I want to go as well.
“Charlie’s an inspiration for me, 100 per cent. I like the way he handles himself. He realises he doesn’t need to try and do the hard thing all of the time, he just does the simple things so well that he makes them look easy.
“I take everything Charlie has done in his career on board and try to work it into my game.
“Even trying to get in the Rangers team right now is some ask because of the way the midfielders are performing there right now.
“I just need to keep doing what I’m doing and see what happens in the future.
“I’ve been at Rangers for eleven or 12 years so to see them now achieving success is great. It’s well deserved.
“Even when you go to Murray Park you can sense things are going well. There are great vibes around the place, you can’t beat it.”
Williamson penned a new deal until 2022 days before he made the loan switch to Arbroath.
Delighted to sign a new contract @RangersFC , looking forward to the season ahead @ArbroathFC 💙👍🏼 https://t.co/7x5HvIzrdz
— Ben Williamson (@benwilliamsonnn) January 13, 2021
Rangers are keeping a close eye on him via one-to-one training sessions with Rangers Under-18s coach Kevin Thomson and spying missions from Rangers Under-20s coach Billy Kirkwood.
“The move to Arbroath has been a great experience for me,” added Williamson. “My confidence levels have gone up and the manager Dick Campbell has shown a lot of trust in me.
“He doesn’t always tell me I’m doing well but he couldn’t be better. I know when he does give me praise he means it.
The @ArbroathFC performance of the season so far for me. At only 19 years old @RFC_Youth midfielder @benwilliamsonnn had another sensational game and topped it off by scoring his first senior goal! C'mon the Lichties pic.twitter.com/77ctgbd7Ir
— Graham Black (@Graham_Black) April 17, 2021
“Billy Kirkwood comes to almost all my games to watch me for Rangers and I’ve been doing one-to-ones with Kevin Thomson.
“I need to take everything on board from Kevin, just as I did with what Charlie said.
“I’m buzzing for the Dunfermline game as it’s a ‘local match’ for me. I live just five minutes along the road in a place called Oakley and I’ve got friends that support Dunfermline.
“We have two more games to get the points we need to stay up and if we play like we did against Ayr we’ve got a real chance.”