IF Gordon Greer takes to the field in tomorrow’s Championship opener at home to Norwich City it will make for a good quiz question in the years to come….

Which player made his League debut for Blackburn Rovers 15 years after first joining the club?

Greer initially arrived at Ewood Park in 2001, a £250,000 Graeme Souness signing from Clyde.

The Scotland international would play only once for Rovers – a 2-0 League Cup win at home to Oldham Athletic in which another youngster, Darren Dunning, would score his first and only goal for the club – before leaving to start a career that has now seen him make 483 senior appearances.

But the lessons he learned at lower Brockhall, from the likes of Henning Berg and Craig Short, stood Greer in good stead.

So much so that, after returning to Rovers this week following his release from Brighton & Hove Albion, the 35-year-old is now ready to pass them on to the teenage defenders looking to break into Owen Coyle’s first-team plans.

“It’s great to be back,” said Greer, who captained Brighton to a trio of play-off places in three of the last four seasons. “It was a long time ago but it’s strange how familiar it feels.

“I learnt a lot here. I never played many games but there were a lot of good professionals, experienced players who I took a lot from, and I tried to implement that in my career, and it stood me in good stead.

“One of the main things was how professional it was back then and how professional they were as they got older. I’ve tried to do that in my career and I’m still here playing at 35.

“The lads were great and as a young player I looked up to many of them. As a young player they were great with me. Now I want to do the same.

“They taught me not just about football, but how to live your life away from football, and I’ll be doing my bit to encourage and push the young players in the right direction.

“If they need anything from me, they can always come and ask me.”

The likes of the highly regarded Scott Wharton will also be rivals.

As, while Greer may be in the latter stages of his career, the fact that he made 23 appearances for Brighton last season, either side of an injury, and the fact that his last cap for Scotland came in June, alongside now departed Rovers Grant Hanley, suggests there are miles left in the tank.

“I don’t like pigeon holing anything, like ‘he’s 35, he’s this, he’s that’,” said Greer, who met his wife during his first spell at the club.

“‘I just take it as it comes on. At this minute I’m fit, I played a number of games last year then I lost my place in the team because of injury, but I got back into the team for the play-off semi-finals and it was great to play the Scotland game against France.

“I’ll just take each year as it comes. I’ve signed a year’s contract here and hopefully I can do well, stay fit and play as many games as I can.”

And what about that long awaited Rovers League debut?

Greer said: “If the manager wants me for Saturday I’ll be ready.”