B Team vs Cove Rangers tonight

It’s better to have an academy.

We generally sign some of the better youth players to the academy anyway, see McPake, Allen and Graham for example.
A team like Rangers, to operate successfully from an economic standpoint, has to sell its top assets to generate the necessary operating income. Therefore, in order to insure that standards are maintained on the field, two things need to happen: i) a regular pipeline of replacement talent has to emerge from the club's youth system, or ii) the existence of a top class scouting network that can uncover affordable talent from other sources, who are good enough to replace those players who have been sold.

Ideally, we should have both of the aforementioned, but since we don't seem to do a good job of promoting and integrating home grown players, into the first team squad, we have to put the majority of our resources into option # (ii. We therefore stand or fail by how successful we are at doing this.
 
A team like Rangers, to operate successfully from an economic standpoint, has to sell its top assets to generate the necessary operating income. Therefore, in order to insure that standards are maintained on the field, two things need to happen: i) a regular pipeline of replacement talent has to emerge from the club's youth system, or ii) the existence of a top class scouting network that can uncover affordable talent from other sources, who are good enough to replace those players who have been sold.

Ideally, we should have both of the aforementioned, but since we don't seem to do a good job of promoting and integrating home grown players, into the first team squad, we have to put the majority of our resources into option # (ii. We therefore stand or fail by how successful we are at doing this.
Producing one player as good as Patterson will be will make it worthwhile, never mind the advancements we are making which allow us to continue to bring through a couple every few years and sell the ones who won’t make it.

In the past 3 years, I’d say 3 players from the academy were given a fair amount of game time but unfortunately two of those weren’t good enough and now we are left with Patterson.

I’m hopeful at least one of the players out on loan will have a chance of being in the squad, whilst I’m hopeful Robby will be our number 1 within the next 2 years.

People need to relax, and give the academy time, it currently has proper scouting and coaching which it was missing in previous years, whilst also being run better in a business sense.

I’m fairly certain Mulholland or someone mentioned that we have 4x the youth internationals we did 5-10 years ago, that shows the ground we are making.

We have 5 regular starters in the Scotland u21 side, that should probably highlight how regarded our youth is. That doesn’t even indicate they’ll all make it to a good level, quite simply - not all of them will.
 
100% lot of money involved in Cove for a side at their level. Quick look round the advertisements at the ground and it’s a who’s who of the Aberdeen business community (Oil & Gas). They are paying a few of these guys decent money.
Spot on. Cove are a decent team exactly the kind of team our youngsters would struggle against. Cove have a physical edge, pace and a fair bit of skill.

Experience like this is exactly why our youngsters need these type of games. This is what will make them better players.
 
If we can get 1 first team level player and a couple of squad fillers out of the B team every year, that would be a resounding success, in my opinion.

Our B team will have players that will never be good enough for the first team and others that are currently not ready, that's simply the way of it. That will be exposed by seasoned pros in a way that the Lowland league might not.

Results like last night aren't great, but let's not use it to write the whole squad off.
 
That may well all be true but me and you must have a different view on what qualifies as a 'great' team.
For the level theyre at they are and some of the football they play is excellent. Obviously i don’t believe they are great as in near our level etc :))
 
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The top couple of lowland league sides are a decent enough standard. The rest of the league isn't very good. I still think loaning players out is better for developing them. The majority won't make it at Rangers, going to places on loan like Arbroath, East Fife, Stirling etc would be much better for them as individuals.

That's the whole point of the B Team. It's to prepare these kids for the next step in their development.

The best players from the B Team will likely get loans to other teams higher up the pyramid. Either this winter or next summer. The lowland league is just a platform for them to demonstrate how ready they are for that. It's not there as an indicator for anything else really. Certainly isn't an indication for regular first team minutes, despite the clamour for them to be involved.
 
Weird how the B team has become a daily debate on here of late. They're progressing just fine.

Last night's result is no shame. They were up against a team with a good setup who are currently leading League 1. The Colts have might have more ability, but are miles behind them both in terms of street smarts and physicality.

Grizzled jobbers like Vigurs, Megginson, Logan etc. would have absolutely relished giving it out a bit to our younger lads. "Welcome to men's football, son" etc.

That's the difficulty coming up against these teams. The experience gap is really hard to bridge. A few more senior pros would no doubt have managed the game a bit better and took the sting out of it. I still would have expected us to lose.

If anything, it's heartening to read the scoreline was slightly flattering.

I still expect to see a couple of names involved last night's game get a run out against Stirling Albion in January.
 
Producing one player as good as Patterson will be will make it worthwhile, never mind the advancements we are making which allow us to continue to bring through a couple every few years and sell the ones who won’t make it.

In the past 3 years, I’d say 3 players from the academy were given a fair amount of game time but unfortunately two of those weren’t good enough and now we are left with Patterson.

I’m hopeful at least one of the players out on loan will have a chance of being in the squad, whilst I’m hopeful Robby will be our number 1 within the next 2 years.

People need to relax, and give the academy time, it currently has proper scouting and coaching which it was missing in previous years, whilst also being run better in a business sense.

I’m fairly certain Mulholland or someone mentioned that we have 4x the youth internationals we did 5-10 years ago, that shows the ground we are making.

We have 5 regular starters in the Scotland u21 side, that should probably highlight how regarded our youth is. That doesn’t even indicate they’ll all make it to a good level, quite simply - not all of them will.
Granted, that we may have to show 'patience' with the revamped youth development system, but the bottom line remains simple: how many of its products eventually become contributing members of the first team squad - that is the bottom line, that at the end of the day is all that matters - all the rest is window dressing.

If you look at the top 4 teams in the EPL - all under tremendous pressure to win - still manage to give meaningful game time to players from their respective youth set-ups, in ways that Rangers aren't matching.
 
I heard an interview with Craig mullholland about youth development and he said that they would arrange games against teams who were stronger and had better players than rangers underage teams had.this was to test them when things weren’t going well and can they still stand up in that environment.we have to get away from the idea that the b team is in the lowland league to win it.if they can brilliant but this is about the development of players.the next step will be loaned out to clubs in the senior leagues.
The games against European sides probably came to a hault due to COVID but this squad we have are playing in the 18s league, UEFA Youth league, Lowland League and the challenge cup plus those that go away and represent their national side at age groups. It's something like over 50 games they will play this season which they aren't even close to being used to at all so this season is a massive learning curve for all of them.

Cove threw promotion away last season and ended up getting beat in the playoffs I think but they have a good mix within their squad. Whereas we have kids at 17/18 tackling senior pros for the first time in their career of course they're going to struggle it's the whole point of what the club are doing.
 
Granted, that we may have to show 'patience' with the revamped youth development system, but the bottom line remains simple: how many of its products eventually become contributing members of the first team squad - that is the bottom line, that at the end of the day is all that matters - all the rest is window dressing.

If you look at the top 4 teams in the EPL - all under tremendous pressure to win - still manage to give meaningful game time to players from their respective youth set-ups, in ways that Rangers aren't matching.
They have a wider talent pool, can attract better players, can hire better coaches and have better facilities.

I understand it’s all relative of course, buts quite telling these teams are trying to sign our best players. City and Chelsea have already taken one each, City sniffing about another one on our books.

I’d also argue that none of those sides have as much pressure on them to win as we do, they can afford to drop points some weeks - but we’re getting into a different area there.

The only Liverpool academy player that really gets games is TAA, Jones gets some game time too, along with Elliot who cost £16m.

City - really only have Foden from their youth academy and he was integrated pretty slowly by Pep to protect him, and have him learning from others.

Chelsea - have been the best for bringing through youth players in the past 10 years - but as we’ve learned, they can have up to 50 players out on loan at one time, that’s not even including all the players in their youth teams still playing for the 23s etc.

We simply can’t operate like that, it’s just not remotely feasible.

United - again, fair enough McTominay, Rashford and Greenwood have all been given a pretty fair amount of game time. However, again it’s only the top players that make it in these academies.

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For the record, I get where you are coming from and we all want to see more academy players in our squad. I’m hopeful we will have more in the coming years, as we need to for Europe.

However, I want them given games on merit rather than their age.
 
Yeah, let’s scrap Auchenhowie and have no youth system so we have to fork out millions of pounds to sign the likes of Nathan Patterson.

The academy is fine.

As the club rebuilds itself in general after the 2012 debacle, the academy is improving as well and getting to where it should be.

Nathan Patterson has been with us since around 2009

Im pretty sure Billy Gilmour was similar.

Can we put to bed the notion we haven't produced talent because of what happened in 2012.

Scotland just doesn’t have the facilities, climate or culture to produce talent the way other nations do.
 
Nathan Patterson has been with us since around 2009

Im pretty sure Billy Gilmour was similar.

Can we put to bed the notion we haven't produced talent because of what happened in 2012.

Scotland just doesn’t have the facilities, climate or culture to produce talent the way other nations do.
Of course that factors into it, and it’s something people don’t realise.

It’s also silly to not acknowledge that 2012 impacted our infrastructure in the academy, in terms of coaching, scouting etc.

The academy is in a much better place.
 
Men v Boys tonight in every sense of the word. Cove were much more physical and it was evident right from the off that we would struggle to deal with that. I am guessing many of the nay-sayers on here don't have a clue about football in the lower leagues and understand that Cove are a decent side with lofty ambitions, paying sizeable wages to some quality players.

I'm confused as to why some expected our B Team to rock up to Cove and steamroller them. It was always going to be a hugely difficult game. Many of that Cove team could play at a higher level, and have done.

Lowry tried to make things happen and you can tell Kelly is a player, credit to the amount of Rangers fans who turned up to watch, conditions weren't great but a good turnout nonetheless.
Its nothing but arrogance expecting a team of 17/18 year olds to beat a very well backed team with some Premiership level players for no reason other than “Rangers”.

The same type of people who shout and bawl from the first minute at Ibrox, of that I have no doubt.
 
Of course that factors into it, and it’s something people don’t realise.

It’s also silly to not acknowledge that 2012 impacted our infrastructure in the academy, in terms of coaching, scouting etc.

The academy is in a much better place.

I am not trying to be smart or funny but how long have you been following our youths ?

Comparing now with then is like comparing apples and pears. It’s a completely different model and approach. How many of our current academy have came through our youth teams and how many have been bought from others ?

I was friendly with and played football for over ten years with one of our physio team when our training centre first opened, he was also the Scotland U21 physio until he moved to America.

I would say one of the biggest changes to impact us was a couple of years before 2012 when Ewan Chester moved on from our Head Scout role and was replaced by Neil Murray.

Any academy or youth system will only work if you have a manager who has confidence to play them and let them develop.
 
I am not trying to be smart or funny but how long have you been following our youths ?

Comparing now with then is like comparing apples and pears. It’s a completely different model and approach. How many of our current academy have came through our youth teams and how many have been bought from others ?

I was friendly with and played football for over ten years with one of our physio team when our training centre first opened, he was also the Scotland U21 physio until he moved to America.

I would say one of the biggest changes to impact us was a couple of years before 2012 when Ewan Chester moved on from our Head Scout role and was replaced by Neil Murray.

Any academy or youth system will only work if you have a manager who has confidence to play them and let them develop.
Well yeah, I referenced scouting as it allows to sign players to the academy like McCann, KRH, Weston, Lindsay and Alegria for example rather than limiting our talent pool to Scotland.

We should be signing other academies best players, having the same group of players from the age of 7 onwards is just daft.

In the past few years off the top my head we’ve signed Graham, Allen and McPake from other sides in Scotland - which is the correct approach to take.

Where quite simply, there isn’t enough talent available due to a number of factors which you’ve alluded to.

Fair enough with your other comments, I’m confident that if the players coming through are good enough and have the potential then they will get a shot :)
 
Nathan Patterson has been with us since around 2009

Im pretty sure Billy Gilmour was similar.

Can we put to bed the notion we haven't produced talent because of what happened in 2012.

Scotland just doesn’t have the facilities, climate or culture to produce talent the way other nations do.
A significant part of pep's remit at City is the development of home grown talent. In the CL for example, with City 5-0 up from the first leg in Romania, Guardiola chose a squad heavily supplemented by academy players to finish the play-off tie with Steaua Bucharest. Likewise, Klopp, in a recent Carabao cup tie against PNE, fielded 5 players from Liverpool's youth academy, whilst Chelsea's youth academy is virtually colonizing the EPL.

Granted that Rangers don't have the development resources to match the aforementioned teams. However, despite the hyper competitive environment in which they exist, somehow they find a way to make their academies work for them, in a way that Rangers don't. I return to my original point - either Rangers invest the personnel and financial resources into developing a top class academy with clear pathways into the first team, or instead invest their resources into cherrypicking top talent from other teams.
 
That may well all be true but me and you must have a different view on what qualifies as a 'great' team.
They aren't a great team. They are what I'd call a more than decent level team backed by a very good club structure and ambition. They are a club and team which is growing in stature.
 
That's the whole point of the B Team. It's to prepare these kids for the next step in their development.

The best players from the B Team will likely get loans to other teams higher up the pyramid. Either this winter or next summer. The lowland league is just a platform for them to demonstrate how ready they are for that. It's not there as an indicator for anything else really. Certainly isn't an indication for regular first team minutes, despite the clamour for them to be involved.
That's exactly how we operate it. The B Team are, if you like, our third tier group. They are behind the loanees, who are in reality the guys closest to the First Team squad - or who are being prepared for sale/release. Exceptional talents like Patterson will buck that pathway obviously.

Saw someone mention earlier we'd be doing well to get 1 player a year coming through from the Academy. I actually think we'd be doing well to get 1 player coming through every 3 years. Currently in the squad we have McCrorie, Kelly and, of course, Patterson. Let’s hope they all go on to have great careers - at Rangers.
 
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Well yeah, I referenced scouting as it allows to sign players to the academy like McCann, KRH, Weston, Lindsay and Alegria for example rather than limiting our talent pool to Scotland.

We should be signing other academies best players, having the same group of players from the age of 7 onwards is just daft.

In the past few years off the top my head we’ve signed Graham, Allen and McPake from other sides in Scotland - which is the correct approach to take.

Where quite simply, there isn’t enough talent available due to a number of factors which you’ve alluded to.

Fair enough with your other comments, I’m confident that if the players coming through are good enough and have the potential then they will get a shot :)


Young lad semple as well who seems to have fallen off the end of the world when so much was thought of him.
 
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