Is it time to go radical and play the kids?

Coza

Coza

Well-Known Member
I remember reading an article 7-8 years ago about how so many of the secondary leagues (Greece, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium etc) were being competitively killed due to champions league money supporting the winning club over and over. The earth disparity was leading to multiple leagues with 4-5-6-7 in a row champions and no signs of it ending.

But then the article switched tone and highlighted in Greece where AEK I believe reversed the trend by hoovering up all the young talent in Greece and persisting/building with them over 1-2-3 seasons. Culminating in them breaking the dynasty using a back bone of young hungry talented kids they wouldn’t necessarily given a chance to before.

Should we be looking at the approach scattering in some senior pros with a host of young kids? Bailey Rice for example gets rave reviews but we never see him. Or Lennon Miller at motherwell getting massive reviews about being a superstar - should we be buying these guys and building longer term?

For those who will reply our kids aren’t good enough - I’m talking actively going and hoovering up all the young Scottish talent throughout the league to supplement our own.
 
Coza said:
I remember reading an article 7-8 years ago about how so many of the secondary leagues (Greece, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium etc) were being competitively killed due to champions league money supporting the winning club over and over. The earth disparity was leading to multiple leagues with 4-5-6-7 in a row champions and no signs of it ending.

But then the article switched tone and highlighted in Greece where AEK I believe reversed the trend by hoovering up all the young talent in Greece and persisting/building with them over 1-2-3 seasons. Culminating in them breaking the dynasty using a back bone of young hungry talented kids they wouldn’t necessarily given a chance to before.

Should we be looking at the approach scattering in some senior pros with a host of young kids? Bailey Rice for example gets rave reviews but we never see him. Or Lennon Miller at motherwell getting massive reviews about being a superstar - should we be buying these guys and building longer term?
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What kids.
 
Coza said:
I’ve just added another line at end to cover that. There is plenty young talent in Scotland right now. We just need to identify it and move early before prices sky rocket.
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I went to the Glasgow cup last season and seen the “kids” , nothing there to get excited about.

On that day mccausland was poor.

How many academy managers have had over the years, they seem to last a year or two.
 
All successful Rangers teams of the past have had a core of decent Scottish players.

Unfortunately, we don't seem capable of rearing our own through an academy that has failed to spectacularly year on year.
 
Rangerscoverboy said:
Exactly, Mccausland did the square root of heehaw.

If they're any good they'd be in the team by now.
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Correct we have been short in numbers for months and none of the B team have stepped up and helped out. Also the fact they don’t play any games won’t help lads like Bailey Rice stay match fit.
 
I’m not saying there is a queue of kids ready to come in and play, but there has to be some.

We routinely waste thousands and dish out contracts to mediocre individuals who have done zero in the game, have farted about the English Championship and the lower regions of the EPL, where a youth team player would likely offer a similar output but a much better value for money.

Would have much rather seen us invest in Lewis Ferguson, Lennon Miller or Bailey Rice than Kieron fucking Dowell or Tom Lawrence for example. Big wages, piss poor output.
 
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We should certainly not be so snobby in future when it comes to spending money on Scottish players….Hickey, Doig, Ferguson, Shankland would all have been signed by Walter back in the day. ‘Rangers tax’ to sign them…fine…I’d still rather have signed them than spend funds on third rate euro talent such as Dessers £4.5m, Lammers £3.5m and Danilo £6m….and so far Diomande not convincing me at £4.5m.

Re our young players I think there is an argument to give more of them an opportunity to be part of the first team squad. We seem to often judge youth players based on are they going to be the next Barry Ferguson or even Nathan Patterson type. They don’t need to be, even if they are just good enough to be squad player status that would save us money that could be used to pay higher fees and/or wages to bring in quality first choice 11 players.
 
AuldYin58 said:
And our supporters turn there noses up at SPL players we should have signed.
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Yep - and it's about to happen with another batch who are bound to move elsewhere and ultimately out of our reach.

We can all name the players recently who have left Scotland and gone on to flourish, that we should have been all over.
 
The 1-2-3 seasons wait. There is no way Rangers fans have the patience for that unfortunately especially right now.
 
I'm normally all for giving youth a chance, especially since league is done but we have but two games to find a system and mix of players to win a cup final, no point messing about and hoping it's ok on the day
 
KensingtonBlue said:
The time to do that was 2012. We pissed away a glorious opportunity
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We played enough of them in L2 and L1, McLeod, Hutton, Aird, Crawford, McKay, Naismith, Perry, Hegarty, Little, all came through from the academy. They weren't good enough even at lower levels and goodness knows where we'd be now if we'd stuck with them instead of starting seriously upgrading around 2015-17 under Warburton.

It is slightly different when you have a squad blended with youngsters from the academy along with elite, seasoned professionals who are winners.
 
Barrymoped said:
No.

This always gets brought up every single time we are struggling and the answer is always the same.

We can’t just play kids for the sake of it. They need to be good enough otherwise there’s just no point.

Signing other teams best young talent though is different and should always be encouraged
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This a million times. Takes me back to the grim days of the lower leagues with people screaming to play the kids and build a homegrown team. Can you imagine if we'd persisted with a core of Scott Gallagher with Darren Cole/Ross Perry in defence, Kyle Hutton and Andy Murdoch in midfield and Kane Hemmings or Kal Naismith up front? And those are the more successful of the youth system back then! We'd probably still be trying to get out of the championship.

They weren't good enough then and the bulk of the current crop sadly wouldn't be good enough now.
 
I honestly think that what you are suggesting is absolutely the way to go, we need to try something.

However, it would take time and our supporters will only get on board if it’s instantly successful.
 
Clement would rather play donkeys like Lundstram and give him a new contract, oh and Phil says he's been fantastic for us this season, God fkn help us if that's what he really wants and thinks.
 
Kyle89 said:
Any player not remaining after the summer shouldn't start another league game.
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If Ridvan is fit enough to start then there won’t be, Borna is off, as is Lundstram who is now suspended for the next two, Jack who is injured and Roofe who may get a few minutes at the end of games at most before he leaves.
 
55degreesnorth said:
This a million times. Takes me back to the grim days of the lower leagues with people screaming to play the kids and build a homegrown team. Can you imagine if we'd persisted with a core of Scott Gallagher with Darren Cole/Ross Perry in defence, Kyle Hutton and Andy Murdoch in midfield and Kane Hemmings or Kal Naismith up front? And those are the more successful of the youth system back then! We'd probably still be trying to get out of the championship.

They weren't good enough then and the bulk of the current crop sadly wouldn't be good enough now.
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Maybe they would have turned out better players if they had been developed.

we tend to think development is purely down to the player and not the club. we have let players like Ferguson and greg Taylor leave out of our youth system, presumably because we thought there was better prospects. I can't help but think we are ruining the young players in our academy.
 
BucksBear said:
Maybe they would have turned out better players if they had been developed.

we tend to think development is purely down to the player and not the club. we have let players like Ferguson leave out of our youth system, presumably because we thought there was better prospects. I can't help but think we are ruining the young players in our academy.
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Darren Cole and Kyle Hutton were getting all of the chances they were ever going to get for development, they were playing champions league group stage games as teenagers! One ended up at Broxburn Athletic a couple of years after leaving us and the other racked up his largest amount of appearances playing for Dumbarton. There will be scores of others with similar stories but those two stick out for me.

As much as I hate using them as a yardstick, how many of Celtics youth prospects have been deemed good enough? They certainly couldn't build a team around them, that's for sure.
 
55degreesnorth said:
Darren Cole and Kyle Hutton were getting all of the chances they were ever going to get for development, they were playing champions league group stage games as teenagers! One ended up at Broxburn Athletic a couple of years after leaving us and the other racked up his largest amount of appearances playing for Dumbarton. There will be scores of others with similar stories but those two stick out for me.

As much as I hate using them as a yardstick, how many of Celtics youth prospects have been deemed good enough? They certainly couldn't build a team around them, that's for sure.
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well they had three products of their youth system play yesterday, although two were produced a long time about.

Players who have left our youth system seem to have done better than the ones that stayed
 
I would rather have seen a young Bailey Rice yesterday than the anonymous Lawrence. There's no way the lad could have put in a worse performance than Mr flatter to deceive.
McCausland came on when we were down to 10 men so it's very easy to slate him but that should be taken into consideration. Had McCausland started on the right and Sterling played in centre midfield things might, and I emphasise it's a very big might, have been different.

People on here keep banging on about better players as the answer to everything. For me it's not about better players it's about the right players. A player the fan base ridiculed recently won player of the month in Holland. He can do it there but not for Rangers.

Players like Broadfoot, Wylde, Clelland have all won league titles with Rangers against far better Celtic teams than the one that pumped us yesterday. Successful Rangers teams have always signed players from other Scottish teams and brought through young players.

We need to stop watching YouTube videos and scout players that would kick their granny to win games for Rangers.

If that Rangers team yesterday had Lewis Ferguson in midfield, Josh Doig at left back and Shankland up top do you think we would have capitulated the way we did. I don't and the annoying thing is we could have gotten all three for next to nothing if our scouting was up to the mark.

The OP has a valid point IMHO. The current trend of signing English championship jobbers is definitely not working.
 
Barry Ferguson was probably the last quality player tk break into the first team, and have an outstanding career, that was 27 years ago.
 
Kids need to be good enough and earn the opportunities to play not given them. They'll train with the first team every day its upto them to leave an impression on the manager. That being said I would like to see Bailey Rice play the next 2 games but suspect he'll play Raskin and Diomande with the cup final in mind.

Lennon Miller keeps being banded about on here but if the fee of £3m is anywhere near true then for me it's a no. 17 years old first year of mens football still a long way to go in his development where he would need to play week in week out to continue that and that's not going to happen with us. Signing him then loaning him out at that price isn't really an option either in the hope he may kick on if he doesn't we don't get a penny of that cash back. It's a massive gamble for a kid who at his age career could still go either way.
 
Anybody who has watched Rangers or indeed the idiots across the city knows this won't work. It takes exceptional talent to make it.
 
No.We have to plan and introduce "kids" into the team with a clear vision of how this will help them and the 1st team.This isn't the correct time.
It's worth bearing in mind that if f we do get a promising youngster the clamour will be on to sell him. In turn we then have to seriously question how we would spend this money.
That's ultimately what's holding us back.Mediocre serially injured recruits that are a financial drain.
It would be great to see some of our youngster being good enough to break through and for us to retain them.This just doesn't happen in reality though.
 
Fans moan some kids aren't good enough after 1 game or a 20 minutes sub appearance
 
GeeSpot said:
We played enough of them in L2 and L1, McLeod, Hutton, Aird, Crawford, McKay, Naismith, Perry, Hegarty, Little, all came through from the academy. They weren't good enough even at lower levels and goodness knows where we'd be now if we'd stuck with them instead of starting seriously upgrading around 2015-17 under Warburton.

It is slightly different when you have a squad blended with youngsters from the academy along with elite, seasoned professionals who are winners.
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The specific youth players we had weren't good enough, but we had the opportunity to build a foundation. Invest heavily in youth scouting, technology & infrastructure instead of Sandaza, Kevin Kyle and a new contract for Lee McCulloch

We did nothing different and today we're left with a poor youth set up and tend to miss out on Scotland's best talents. It's piss poor
 
Ah it's that time of the season again. The vermin are champions, days are getting warmer and a thread advocating 'playing the kids' as our first team has been posted. Like clockwork every year.
 
Never mind players, we can't even keep hold of the staff we have on the Youth side for more than 10 minutes with Zeb Jacobs seemingly heading off to Feyenoord after less than a year leaving the Academy Director position open.

Like everything else this club does the constant upheaval is not conducive to building a base for recruiting and putting in place a pipeline for youngsters to make the first team.
 
Coza said:
I remember reading an article 7-8 years ago about how so many of the secondary leagues (Greece, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium etc) were being competitively killed due to champions league money supporting the winning club over and over. The earth disparity was leading to multiple leagues with 4-5-6-7 in a row champions and no signs of it ending.

But then the article switched tone and highlighted in Greece where AEK I believe reversed the trend by hoovering up all the young talent in Greece and persisting/building with them over 1-2-3 seasons. Culminating in them breaking the dynasty using a back bone of young hungry talented kids they wouldn’t necessarily given a chance to before.

Should we be looking at the approach scattering in some senior pros with a host of young kids? Bailey Rice for example gets rave reviews but we never see him. Or Lennon Miller at motherwell getting massive reviews about being a superstar - should we be buying these guys and building longer term?

For those who will reply our kids aren’t good enough - I’m talking actively going and hoovering up all the young Scottish talent throughout the league to supplement our own.
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He won't do it. Let's just say against all the odds they lost at Rugby park and we win our game by few goals. We'd be going in to the last game of the season in a scenario that if they lose and we win, we win the league. Obviously I know that's not going to happen but the manager has made it clear it's not done until it's done. He's also more likely to try and use these games to figure out his cup final team.
 
I find it interesting when people say “what if they make a mistake etc” - as opposed to the overpaid jobbers who make mistakes week in week out?

I’d like to think Rice, McKinnon etc could get some minutes in the last 2 fixtures. At least they’re young enough to learn from mistakes & improve.

Our “leadership” team never learn from their mistakes.
 
Ah this subject again. Not read this in a few months

The answer is no. Our youths are absolutely nowhere near good enough. If they were they’d be in and around the team regularly.

McAusland is in there as a matter of circumstances, not becuase he is good enough let’s be honest. I’ve said it for months with him, if we paid a transfer fee for him people would be going mental about him getting game time as he provides very, very little. He gets away from criticism because he is from our youth team.

Peoples thoughts for whatever reason is to play the kids as they will somehow become our saviours and fix the mess we are in. The reality is they would get battered and destroy them as footballers. Our support would crucify them.
 
mathers1 said:
I find it interesting when people say “what if they make a mistake etc” - as opposed to the overpaid jobbers who make mistakes week in week out?

I’d like to think Rice, McKinnon etc could get some minutes in the last 2 fixtures. At least they’re young enough to learn from mistakes & improve.

Our “leadership” team never learn from their mistakes.
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Has Rice even made a squad under Clement?

It's the usual pattern this time of year. League done, we'll see 2 or 3 youngsters, they'll look decent, then we won't see them again until we play some 2nd division team at Ibrox in the cup next season.
 
Kids will inevitably be inconsistent no matter how talented they are.
Some already want the managers head after 7 months, a trophy with a worn out, not good enough and perpetually injured squad.
No chance are we giving kids the time required - unfortunately.
 
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