Have we ever let a young player that has ever really been one we have lived to regret?

Gattuso didn't fit into an Advocaat midfield so the little general tried to make him a Right Back.
Wee Rino was having none of it and there was a classic clash of personalities into the bargain.

I don't think letting him go was anything about ability, and he clearly wanted back to Italy anyway.
We still let a bona fide world class midfielder slip through our fingers when he could have spent the next few years excelling in the Champions League and being sold on for big money. One of the most decorated players ever to leave Rangers and he did so prematurely.

Agree with the OP though, these cases are few and far between. Not really losing sleep over McCrorie leaving.
 
No not really. Follow follow has been full of meltdowns of young players leaving and none have came back to bite us. Charlie Telfer or Reece McCabe for example.

As someone pointed out on another thread. Robbie mccrorie played himself out of being Livingston number one last time he was on loan.

Is he even better than say Liam Kelly?
I remember the Charlie Telfer nonsense on here, what ever happened to him?
 
They didn't really have to have "genuine" ability though TBF i.e they didn't need to be capable of playing for Man City. I would expect they for the most part had ability at a higher level than the best part of 80% of the players they come up against during our years in the lower league, or I would like to hope they did TBF.

A coach goes some way to helping develop talent and a bit of ambition though TBF

Last season's performances in the Lowland League (and against some Euro opposition) indicate it's not straight-forward - and this crop of youngsters is significantly better than those from a decade ago.

Agree on the coaching. But sometimes a player just doesn't have it or even want it. One of the most important things for a youngster is surrounding themselves with good people.
 
Last season's performances in the Lowland League (and against some Euro opposition) indicate it's not straight-forward - and this crop of youngsters is significantly better than those from a decade ago.

Agree on the coaching. But sometimes a player just doesn't have it or even want it. One of the most important things for a youngster is surrounding themselves with good people.

I would expect the side of last season supplemented with a few seasons professionals would have been much improved though?

I agree re the second point, it can happen, I am just not convinced it was applicable with that entire group, or couldn't have been much improved talent and attitude by AN other coach. I don't think they were surrounded by that many good people, which could have been helped by their removal, never arriving, there was still things to be gained with those players, more than we got from them IMO.
 
What I said, was McCoists "youth policy" was f*cking repulsive, the key word in that is McCoist.

The likes of Naismith and Cole had poor attitudes, the f*cking manager had a poor attitude!

McCoist "played" young players, he chucked them in, swung them about a bit, but there was f*ck all coaching going on, he hardly "coached" the first team, some of the kids he "played" were given random out of nowhere no logic appearances.

He bombed out the likes of Little and McKay despite them playing well as quickly as he could.

The reason some of those mentioned didn't "cut the mustard" was massively in part thanks to the complete reckless abandon with which McCoist guided their careers TBH.

Lets not get as fit as we can, lets get fitter than part time sides
Lets not work on tactics, lets play darts
Lets not question players standards and ethics, lets play Ian Black

That is every bit a f*cking repulsive environment TBH

A "coach" like McCall would have worked a decent clutch of players throw the ranks with him and took them to the table by the time we were promoted, would they have been world beaters, no, would they have had to be? No, they would have had to have been competent slightly talented players to manage the wants and demands being asked of them.

Two examples, Andy Little and Barrie McKay would have offered way, way way way way way way way way more than Jon Daly and Kris Boyd were by the they signed, but McCoist had to take the easy option and he generally did it every.single.time - and Jon Daly was a "successful" signing

These things were all haunting enough at the time, but the H and H McCoist years utterly floods it all back, the idea he couldn't have done more for a lot of these players is complete garbage, however "poor" most of them were is an absolute shining example of his "coaching"

Have you looked in the mirror sir
 
Not really TBH, it was a comment passing comment on how I felt about that time, the whole "bashing" thing is really tedious TBH, either people agree, or not, not much more to it than that
Yeah it was.

The thread is supposed to be about letting young players go that we have lived to regret. None of the players under McCoist's tenure fall into that category.

You though decided to bring McCoist up, having your digs at him as you did so, & have then went on to rip into him in what.. a dozen or so posts now?

Lol it's pretty pathetic really, not to mention ruining what had been a decent read.

Well done though, top guy.
 
Barry Robson ? Never went on to be a top player but was definitely one that gave us problems any time he played against us.

Had he been in our squad 2007/08 rather than the scums I think we win the league that year.
 
Yeah it was.

The thread is supposed to be about letting young players go that we have lived to regret. None of the players under McCoist's tenure fall into that category.

You though decided to bring McCoist up, having your digs at him as you did so, & have then went on to rip into him in what.. a dozen or so posts now?

Lol it's pretty pathetic really, not to mention ruining what had been a decent read.

Well done though, top guy.

I do people the decency of replying to them if they reply to me TBH

I did mention the McCoist era as a regretful time in our time of youth development yeah.... it was a time we had the chance to develop players who could have offered us more than those retained did or were, we didn't and that is something to regret.

LOL, thanks I am a top guy, knew that already TBF
 
They did actually, they actually did because loads of people f*cking despised McCoist the manager and utterly hated what they were looking at, the premise of them did and the idea we couldn't be doing something other than we were boiled peoples f*cking piss, often.

The jersey can be too big aye.

It was too big for Ian Black, Seb Faures jersey in general was often too f*ckin big for a paid professional football player, it was too big for Ricky Foster, it was too big for Steven Smith when he returned, it was too big for Kris Boyd when he came back, it was too big for Fran Sandazza, like Faure it was always too big for Kvin Kyle, well, not always, sometimes it was tight and it really highlighted what an overweight mess he was.

But we just couldn't have achieved without them eh

You see even in a world where people think the youth McCoist had on offer was sh*t, the actual reality, the actual week to week thing that went on the park was worse than sh*t.

No a fan then ?
 
We still let a bona fide world class midfielder slip through our fingers when he could have spent the next few years excelling in the Champions League and being sold on for big money. One of the most decorated players ever to leave Rangers and he did so prematurely.

Agree with the OP though, these cases are few and far between. Not really losing sleep over McCrorie leaving.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Advocaat built his team around Ferguson and arguably for those 2 years only Manchester United had a better midfield in Britain.
Gattuso wasn't wee Dick's kind of player or personality but he did want to keep him.
Gattuso wanted to leave so for both those reasons doesn't meet the criteria of the OP.
 
Duncan Ferguson.
About 22 or 23 so maybe not so young. Could have been a legend.

Treated appalling by everyone. But that’s for another thread.

He was a clown at that time, an absolute trouble magnet. His attitude was honking, he had no one to blame but himself.

He had the potential to be one of Britain‘s greatest ever centreforwards but ended up no top club would take the risk and Everton and Newcastle were his limit.

2 medals and a Player of the month trophy to his name.
 
Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Advocaat built his team around Ferguson and arguably for those 2 years only Manchester United had a better midfield in Britain.
Gattuso wasn't wee Dick's kind of player or personality but he did want to keep him.
Gattuso wanted to leave so for both those reasons doesn't meet the criteria of the OP.
He very much meets the criteria. He is literally the epitome of what the OP is trying to describe. A young player we had on our books who we allowed to leave prematurely and went on to be one of the greatest midfielders of his generation.

He was only at Salernitana for a season and then quickly became a key player in a truly great AC Milan side, winning Champions League titles and a World Cup with Italy. Not quite sure how that doesn’t fit the criteria.
 
Didn’t really want the thread to become a list of players who have left but it to be more about the fact that it would be a small number of players that the club have got it wrong with. It’s that part of it that has me puzzling over the number of negative posts about every action of our football club because in the main the club does get the moving in of players right.
 
He very much meets the criteria. He is literally the epitome of what the OP is trying to describe. A young player we had on our books who we allowed to leave prematurely and went on to be one of the greatest midfielders of his generation.

He was only at Salernitana for a season and then quickly became a key player in a truly great AC Milan side, winning Champions League titles and a World Cup with Italy. Not quite sure how that doesn’t fit the criteria.
We wanted to keep him. He wanted to leave.

Criteria = not met. Read it again.
 
Recently? Nope. But of course that is balanced by the lack of young players we have actually brought through to be anything close to regulars in the first team.

That situation is probably only going to get worse as we look to strengthen the 1st team squad year on year.
 
going back a fair bit but was Eoin Jess no on our books? I know he ended up hating us, but always thought he was a good player
 
Still one of my favourite threads.

1000 posts tearing Ally McCoist to bits for letting him go.
The U20s usually played at 2pm on a tuesday in Dumbarton, when you'd be lucky if there were more than 60 of us at the games.

Even at that level, he never stood out.
It was so obvious that 99% on the thread had never even seen the boy play.

Probably the same posters who were dying for Ian Cathro to get the managers job.
 
We wanted to play a future world class midfielder at right back. It was our error. One of few though as per the OP.
Do you think we could have built a team round him?
Do you think he’d have “survived” our game?
Would you have thought he’d go on and have the career he did?
Not trying to be smart here, I’m just trying to offer reasons that could make the decision at the time seem correct.
Remember, it wasn’t a direct route from Rangers to superstar.
When we were selling him, the AC’s etc weren’t interested.
 
Do you think we could have built a team round him?
Do you think he’d have “survived” our game?
Would you have thought he’d go on and have the career he did?
Not trying to be smart here, I’m just trying to offer reasons that could make the decision at the time seem correct.
Remember, it wasn’t a direct route from Rangers to superstar.
When we were selling him, the AC’s etc weren’t interested.
Of course we could have built a team around him. In just a few short years after leaving Rangers he was arguably the best defensive midfielder in the World. We had a great midfield at the time but Gio aside, none of them went on to hit the heights of Gattusso. If he’d stayed at Rangers we would have stifled his career by playing him out of position, but that’s my point. Advocaat failed to recognise just what a talent we had on our hands and wanted to play him at right back.

It’s all ifs and buts, but the whole point of the OP is have we ever let a young player slip through the net who went on to bigger and better things and Rino undoubtedly did.
 
What I said, was McCoists "youth policy" was f*cking repulsive, the key word in that is McCoist.

The likes of Naismith and Cole had poor attitudes, the f*cking manager had a poor attitude!

McCoist "played" young players, he chucked them in, swung them about a bit, but there was f*ck all coaching going on, he hardly "coached" the first team, some of the kids he "played" were given random out of nowhere no logic appearances.

He bombed out the likes of Little and McKay despite them playing well as quickly as he could.

The reason some of those mentioned didn't "cut the mustard" was massively in part thanks to the complete reckless abandon with which McCoist guided their careers TBH.

Lets not get as fit as we can, lets get fitter than part time sides
Lets not work on tactics, lets play darts
Lets not question players standards and ethics, lets play Ian Black

That is every bit a f*cking repulsive environment TBH

A "coach" like McCall would have worked a decent clutch of players throw the ranks with him and took them to the table by the time we were promoted, would they have been world beaters, no, would they have had to be? No, they would have had to have been competent slightly talented players to manage the wants and demands being asked of them.

Two examples, Andy Little and Barrie McKay would have offered way, way way way way way way way way more than Jon Daly and Kris Boyd were by the they signed, but McCoist had to take the easy option and he generally did it every.single.time - and Jon Daly was a "successful" signing

These things were all haunting enough at the time, but the H and H McCoist years utterly floods it all back, the idea he couldn't have done more for a lot of these players is complete garbage, however "poor" most of them were is an absolute shining example of his "coaching"
Have not mentally brought myself round to listen to the McCoist years on H&H yet and post like this are bringing back enough bad memories to tell me not to bother.
 
Big Dunc, then bought him for a then British transfer record a few years later.

He was never on our books but Dalglish grew up in Ibrox.
 
Wow wow wow just utter bitterness oozing out of you

The fact is that without Ally I dread to think of the things that would have happened to our club. He saved our titles and supported the staff through the club.

As for his coaching, which would seem to be your main issue here, what was it that you take exception to? I assume you watched every session, drill etc and feel he didn't quite match up to Pep, Klopp or the likes
I suspect its because Ally tried to inject some morale boosting exercises to the squad that you think then makes him totally unable to drill a team

But hey, you will know so much more about coaching than Walter Smith, the man who proposed him for the job and worked with him for years
Your point

‘without Ally I dread to think what would have happened to our club’

is something that every single fan who wants to have a dig at Ally should remember before spouting bile against the man.

A little bit more respect for McCoist should be afforded by Rangers fans.

We have a club to support, let’s support it.
 
Duncan Ferguson.
About 22 or 23 so maybe not so young. Could have been a legend.

Treated appalling by everyone. But that’s for another thread.
As I recall, the only appalling aspect of Duncan Ferguson's early career were the reports of his behaviour away from the pitch. The bonus of his time at Rangers imo was that the magnificent Mark Hateley rose to the challenge to his place in the team, and performed even better. I agree Duncan Ferguson possessed great ability which was evident throughout his career in England, however the decision to sell him to Everton for a modest profit was the right one at the time. I do agree however that he could have been a top player for Rangers, had his discipline and behaviour been of the standard required by our club.
 
World Cup 1974 back four.
Those two.
Sandy Jardine
Danny McGrain who we scouted but never signed.
Gordon didn't play at 1974 world cup also missed 1978 as he was injured. Fro memory I think Jim Holton was our centre-half. Only ever remember Kenny Burns at centre forward for us in the mid-seventies when he was at Birmingham, stepped back to centre-half at Forest under Clough and was very capable in that position for the national team for a while. Also won player of the year in England the season Forest won the league, read a newspaper interview he gave a few years back in which he made clear he's still a true blue.
 
Kenny Burns anyone? Perhaps not the best footballing centre half the world has seen but, given the era and what he went on to win, worthy of mention?
 
Not sure if he he fits into the let go bracket, or young enough to be included, but Duncan Ferguson springs to mind. I’ve always felt he would have been become a McCoist level legend with us.

Edit: i see he is already mentioned.
 
No not really. Follow follow has been full of meltdowns of young players leaving and none have came back to bite us. Charlie Telfer or Reece McCabe for example.

As someone pointed out on another thread. Robbie mccrorie played himself out of being Livingston number one last time he was on loan.

Is he even better than say Liam Kelly?
Robbie McCrorie will be 25 on his next birthday.

I’m inclined to feel that if he was ever going to be our number one he would have been seriously knocking on the door before now.
 
I do people the decency of replying to them if they reply to me TBH

I did mention the McCoist era as a regretful time in our time of youth development yeah.... it was a time we had the chance to develop players who could have offered us more than those retained did or were, we didn't and that is something to regret.

LOL, thanks I am a top guy, knew that already TBF

Lewis McLeod
Barrie McKay
Robbie Crawford
Ross Perry
Kal Naismith
Kane Hemmings
Andy Mitchell
Andy Little
Fraser Aird
Luca Gasparotto
Chris Heggarty
Kyle Hutton
Danny Stoney
Callum Gallagher
Kyle McAusland
Craig Halkett

All "youth products" of Rangers that featured under McCoist.

Most of them failed to impress against 2nd and 3rd division players. Plenty youth players got a chance under McCoist.
 
Not sure if Arteta has been mentioned. Left us aged 22.
Arteta wanted to leave because he was "homesick" then signed for Everton a year later, too powderpuff for their WWE-style tactics at that point as well in the SPL.

I remember all the people going mental over Telfer when we let him go, he's currently unattached after playing for giants such as Falkirk, Morton and Almere City (some low league Dutch team) :D
 
Seen a couple of people mention Kenny Dalglish who would be my choice, my only doubt is around whether he was 'let go' or just rejected. Older Bears will know better than me, but I think the story is we didn't take him as a junior because he was too wee?

His playing career was just coming to an end when I was getting into football, but for a Rangers daft kid from staunch stock, raised in the shadow of Ibrox, to end up playing for them and going on to be (arguably, but in my opinion) Scotland's greatest ever player, is a source of some regret.
 
Robert Fleck? I can’t remember the circumstances but leaving in December 1987 when he was top of his game seemed like terrible timing. Went on to score a lot of goals for Norwich and set a record transfer fee to Chelsea (that didn’t work out).
Like his nephew, there was talk at the time that he had to get out of Glasgow for his own good.

A tremendous player.
 
As I recall, the only appalling aspect of Duncan Ferguson's early career were the reports of his behaviour away from the pitch. The bonus of his time at Rangers imo was that the magnificent Mark Hateley rose to the challenge to his place in the team, and performed even better. I agree Duncan Ferguson possessed great ability which was evident throughout his career in England, however the decision to sell him to Everton for a modest profit was the right one at the time. I do agree however that he could have been a top player for Rangers, had his discipline and behaviour been of the standard required by our club.
Lewis McLeod
Barrie McKay
Robbie Crawford
Ross Perry
Kal Naismith
Kane Hemmings
Andy Mitchell
Andy Little
Fraser Aird
Luca Gasparotto
Chris Heggarty
Kyle Hutton
Danny Stoney
Callum Gallagher
Kyle McAusland
Craig Halkett

All "youth products" of Rangers that featured under McCoist.

Most of them failed to impress against 2nd and 3rd division players. Plenty youth players got a chance under McCoist.
No they didn’t get a fair chance v others who were played often and were shite, how many games and minutes did they play with what level of logic or sense?

McCoist and his youth policy was a total nonsense
 
Gattuso didn't fit into an Advocaat midfield so the little general tried to make him a Right Back.
Wee Rino was having none of it and there was a classic clash of personalities into the bargain.

I don't think letting him go was anything about ability, and he clearly wanted back to Italy anyway.
Don't remember many complaints about him being let go at the time. The consensus seemed to be getting a rumoured £3m was a great bit of business
 
A lot of chat on other threads about resigning McGregor and it being bad for McCrorie. Was also similar when we let his brother Ross go but doesn’t history prove that our club makes very few mistakes when we let players leave? Have many came back to really bite us in the arse after going into to bigger and better things?

I’m not bashing any players here but in general they find a level below Rangers. There are a few who have made it that we then have sold for decent money Like Alan Hutton or Nathan Patterson

Every season we have this mistrust of the board, management, recruitment, scouting but I’d suggest history has always proven that it’s been right to let players go or that they are not making more of an impact in the first team.

A squad can only be a certain size and if you have a better player in a position it can be hard to oust them unless the young guy coming in is exceptional, maybe look at Bassey totally making Barisic look like the backup guy now.

I know it’s preseason and we are all desperate for the football to start again but it’s maybe better to trust the management of the club and assume they know better than you about the players they work with everyday than you do.
not academy. But Rino Gattuso was one I always regretted. Others I assumed would go on to be great like Robert Fleck, Barry Ferguson, Duncan Ferguson, Derek Ferguson and Alan Hutton. But none were better than they were at Rangers
 
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