Five To Depart Academy

Noticed only 1 leaving from the U18s. I take it this is a good group. Think its the year a few of them will need to prove they are good enough like Dickson, Mebude etc.
 
Wilson looked very promising but as above injuries have done his career a power of harm.

Good luck to them all.
 
Aidan Wilson the CB that made a couple appearances?
He just didn’t improve the way he should have.
A better prospect than Bates at the time, I thought.
Of the others, the Balde lad, we had two of them.
I thought they were highly rated.
The keeper definitely was for a while.
I know he was a septic player in the past, and that won’t have went against him but, was he one of those who spouted their feelings recently?
 
I would have guessed McAdams would be going in January, his contract was up and went the N.I league for game time.

Wilson I’m sure was in the same boat but rarely playing in the Scottish lower leagues.

I’m not sure if the others as I’ve not seen or heard much of Balde, McKechnie or Anderson.

Was Anderson not brought over from the states and thought to been a good prospect.


McAdams signed on loan for Portadown but never actually played due to injury.
 
Decent to have Rangers on your CV at that age, hopefully they find a good living in the sport somewhere else.
 
A couple of strange signings among the five in my opinion.

A goalkeeper Celtic were looking to get rid of and we managed to pay them a fee. A year older and not as good as Kieran Wright, thought it was a strange one.

An American who has hardly played and when he has played he has shown very little, including his trial period. Came from Philadelphia Union - Head of Youth at Philadelphia Union - Tommy Wilson - A favour ? Seemed bizarre.

Joao Balde came into pro youth pretty late from Spartans, probably did enough to justify a contract but not enough to justify another one.

Aidan and Kieran have been at the club since a young age and at one time or another looked decent prospects. Both have struggled with injuries, Kieran has hardly played in the past two years. Aidan struggled to play regularly on his loan periods, with injuries playing a part in that, now 21, time to move on.
 
I honestly think the club,and Craig Mulholland in particular, handle this type of thing magnificently. They go out their way to give these guys a glowing reference and to take care of them.

We really do have one of the best academies around now.

We really don’t.

Still waiting on one achieving anything in the first team.
 
Good luck to all our young lads who have given their best to succeed at our great club but have not quite made it. Hopefully they will find success elsewhere.
 
All the best to them. Aiden Wilson had went completely off the radar, although his debut came at a time we were pretty thin in the 1st team squad he looked more than capable.
 
The work we will do to help these boys find new clubs is fantastic and will really help when we try and persuade others to join our academy in the future
 
We really don’t.

Still waiting on one achieving anything in the first team.

We really do.

The clue was in the word "now".

When the spivs were here, we did not. Now we do and these new methods quite obviously take time to bear fruit.
 
A couple of strange signings among the five in my opinion.

A goalkeeper Celtic were looking to get rid of and we managed to pay them a fee. A year older and not as good as Kieran Wright, thought it was a strange one.

An American who has hardly played and when he has played he has shown very little, including his trial period. Came from Philadelphia Union - Head of Youth at Philadelphia Union - Tommy Wilson - A favour ? Seemed bizarre.

Joao Balde came into pro youth pretty late from Spartans, probably did enough to justify a contract but not enough to justify another one.

Aidan and Kieran have been at the club since a young age and at one time or another looked decent prospects. Both have struggled with injuries, Kieran has hardly played in the past two years. Aidan struggled to play regularly on his loan periods, with injuries playing a part in that, now 21, time to move on.
Don't you feel there has been too many strange and not so good signings and contracts at youth level,when will we see the fruits of the academy do you think elf.
 
Don't you feel there has been too many strange and not so good signings and contracts at youth level,when will we see the fruits of the academy do you think elf.

The last step is probably the most difficult one and is really out of the academy's remit. First team manager and coaches will only play a player if they have confidence in them. Loans are a risk, for every successful one like Stephen Kelly at Ayr United there seems to be a couple like Josh McPake where they are sitting watching football.
 
The McAdams signing was always a strange one when we already had great young keepers here. Best of luck to all of them.
 
We really don’t.

Still waiting on one achieving anything in the first team.

There probably is a decent debate to be had here. I wonder what the cost is of running these academies are opposed to just buying an emerging talent from another club?

would the country produce better players if the younger players were all attached to smaller clubs and they played week in week out and the. Caught the eye of the bigger teams like what happened in the past?

I’m really on the fence with this as I suppose the idea of the academy is to produce players like Manchester United seemed to do every couple of seasons where 3 or 4 guys would just naturally progress into the first team and stay there . Rangers have been trying to get it right It seems for a while even before all the shite in 2012 and we never really have struck lucky with a procession of talented every other year. we have seen one or two gems come in and we have got a reasonable fee for them.

I know also that it’s quite a big number of lads who at a certain age have huge potential and don’t kick on, there are only a few guys who make it as top pros.
 
Aidan was really unlucky with injuries. Hasn’t seem to stay clear for any long period. Lewis Mayo has taken his spot as being the 4th centre half at the club. Real shame for him as he genuinely looked the part.

McAdams was a weird signing in the first place. 3 year deal for a keeper not as good as what we had.

I only saw Balder twice, technically good but there were better than him at a younger age.

Don’t know much about the other two, Kieran had been at the club a long time though.
 
The work we will do to help these boys find new clubs is fantastic and will really help when we try and persuade others to join our academy in the future

so freeing a player then find him another club will encourage a player to join are you serious chief
 
so freeing a player then find him another club will encourage a player to join are you serious chief

I think it shows that if it doesn't work out then they won't just be sent on their way so it is probably reassuring for young players to know that there will be support there for them if they get released
 
We really don’t.

Still waiting on one achieving anything in the first team.
Yeah, we've been hearing this for years with every new 'crop' that is coming through. It's never really materialised.

The fact that the big clubs can now plunder the academies and pick up the lads when they're 15/16 before you can make a decent return on them makes you wonder whether it's worth having an academy at all anymore.
 
I think it shows that if it doesn't work out then they won't just be sent on their way so it is probably reassuring for young players to know that there will be support there for them if they get released
All clubs do the same..
 
Back
Top