Kai Kennedy, Nathan Patterson & Lewis Mayo.

Pedro was promising him and his parents first team opportunities for 6 months during negotiations and they never came.

He was good enough at the time, our midfield was utter dross.
The thugs that masquerade as footballers up here, Would have booted %^*& out of him, The boy himself said he wasn’t ready to compete with grown men.
 
I just don’t think this is the year to be throwing the youth in. Whether we like it or not this is the biggest season in Scottish football since 1997 and potentially longer . The media frenzy caused by them going for the tainted 10 is not the pressure to introduce youth . You could say there’s pressure every year at rangers and yes your correct but pretending this is not gonna be on a completely new level this year is lying to yourself
 
Meanwhile, Middleton has a decent first season, gets sent on loan and is replaced by two players who were unable to match his performance levels.

Same as McCrorie. We bring in Coulibaly and King for midfield yet we'd have been better giving mccrorie those chances.
 
If we sign a CB to cover the loss of Katic at the expense of other areas (CM, RW/right sided attacker) then I will be disappointed.

Goldson, Helander & Edmundson is fine until he’s back with Bassey who can play there too.


I would agree with that too. Edmundson should be at the point where he can handle the level and be ready for a more advanced role (I hope).
No idea about Bassey but being highly rated he should have the ability to play vs the smaller teams in our cup games etc...
 
McGregor, Forrest, Tierney, Ajer(was signed as a 17 year old academy project) and Johnston have all featured a lot over the past few years. Then you have players like Dembele and Ralston who have featured when needed but aren't quite ready.

Some of the development matches that they're used to are more difficult to play in on a technical level, I never said (or at least meant) that as a generalisation.

So no mate, I'm not going to admit I was wrong.
It has been easier for them to bleed in young players, they've had no challenge domestically for 6 or 7 years!
 
I dont watch a lot of the younger lads games, but i think a lot of guys are getting well ahead of themselves with Patterson. He did okay the game he played. The pressure of being a stop gap is way different to being a first team regular. Middleton looked like something special in Gerrards first year, and i remember him having a very good pre-season and then a few cameos, i wouldnt say he was anywhere near the first team now.
All three will be injury cover, and will likely feature off the bench.
 
The irony is that SG got his chance at 17 ! He was a standout , granted, but you would think he would not be inclined hold anyone back if they were truly worthy !

He isn't. None of them have been good enough to move the people in front of them out the way yet.

Middleton got plenty game time in his first season and wasn't ready.

Kennedy and Paterson weren't fully ready last season. Let's see if they are now.

The onus is on the young player to force the breakthrough by being better than the guys in front of them. That'd life and that's football. It has always been thus at every big club....or indeed any club. No free meal tickets.

The ones who have the mentality we need are the ones who get the chest out and the shoulders back and force their way into the team. Not many who have left have ever proved us wrong.
 
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“For years”....... How many youth players who weren’t given a real chance have gone on to be top players elsewhere and proven to be good enough to play in a Rangers first team?

The good ones have always made it through, Charlie Miller, Barry Ferguson, Alan Hutton, Charlie Adam, Shagger but they HAVE to be good otherwise they're best playing elsewhere and unfortunately that is the fate of so many.

Thing is we've only been serious about youth development for about 5 years, Mulholland (back in 2015) believed it would take about 5 years to see the first signs, so these lads on the fringes are kind of a test case some respects.
 
I think he would admit that himself, I will counter that by saying getting punted to left flank every game didn’t help him flourish. Both valid points, Fleck probably played over 60 games for us so he did get a chance. Whatever way you interpret it.

There is no doubt Wattie not playing him in his preferred central mid position played a not insignificant part in hindering Fleck's development at Ibrox. However from what I have been told, getting in with the wrong crowd was the main reason (and he admits that nowadays).
 
It has been easier for them to bleed in young players, they've had no challenge domestically for 6 or 7 years!
This is the biggest load of pish ever
Most clubs bleeds young players no matter if they’re challenging or fighting relegation

Last season alone they flung Frimpong in. Gave Welsh, Robertson, Dembele game time

People just need to admit they don’t believe in youth development instead of making excuses that don’t stand up
 
There’s a reason the top managers fling their best prospects in as soon as possible instead of loaning them

The idea that we can’t promote a youngster before he’s went out on loan is unique to our fans
 
If what you're saying is true, then that smacks of self entitlement from Kennedy mate.

He's not long turned 18 and he's making demands that if he isn't playing in the 1st team he's off?

Gerrard took Patterson, Kennedy, Mebube and Maxwell to the Dubai training camp and only Patterson looked like a 1st team player.

Kennedy is a terrific prospect, but he'll need to prove himself better than Kent and Hagi before he's starting regularly this season.
Not sure he's demanding playing 1st team every week ,think it's more guarantee that he will get opportunities and fair enough as we don't exactly have great record.
 
Ojo is currently a way superior player to Kennedy mate.


He is quicker, stronger and remember he's 3 years older.

It's not a fair comparison at the moment.

Kennedy has far more development in him than Ojo.
Superior player totally disagree superior in build pace maybe but as a footballer couldn't get near Kennedy I would so much rather have the brain than build to be honest .
 
I witnessed most of Fleck's Rangers games and it is no exaggeration to say his level of performance got poorer with each game.

By all accounts Fleck failed at Ibrox because of the "friends" he kept, who led him astray.

Yip. He was the best player in Scotland as a youngster. I used to see him in the town drinking every other weekend in nightclubs when he was only 17 at the time. He was in with a bad crowd.

Moving away down south with his Mrs and having a kid etc was the making of him. Got him away from the Glasgow crowd and no doubt he barely drinks etc anymore and lives like a professional, and now look at him. You'd struggle to get Sheff United to answer the phone to anyone offering less than 25m for him.
 
The good ones have always made it through, Charlie Miller, Barry Ferguson, Alan Hutton, Charlie Adam, Shagger but they HAVE to be good otherwise they're best playing elsewhere and unfortunately that is the fate of so many.

Thing is we've only been serious about youth development for about 5 years, Mulholland (back in 2015) believed it would take about 5 years to see the first signs, so these lads on the fringes are kind of a test case some respects.

Yes, mate that is kinda my point.

I wouldn’t be as bold to say the you the players haven’t had a chance as such, because hardly any (if any) who we’ve let go or not given a chance have proved us wrong by tearing it up at their new clubs.

As for some names mentioned by other posters...

Young Billy G for instance. We need to remember that the 15yy old Billy that was with us is not the same as the 18yr old Billy that is in and around the Chelsea first team.

At 15yr old we had him playing u20 football and had him training with the first team (when his studies allowed) and travelling with the first team to matches. So I wouldn’t say he never got a chance as such.

Liam Kelly, hardly proved us wrong. A decent enough GK without a doubt, but in his mid-20s he’d still be playing second fiddle if he stayed with us.

Greg Taylor - wouldn’t have played in front Wallace and wouldn’t keep Barisic out the team.

Lewis Ferguson - very debatable whether he’s good enough to get a game in our current midfield. Bearing in mind that this is also a midfield that we’re probably looking to improve further this summer.

I firmly believe that if youths are good enough they will get a chance - although they need a bit of selfish luck with injuries/suspensions to other players.
 
A few points

Lewis Ferguson left at the end of his Under 14 season, I wasn't too surprised at this.

Greg Taylor left halfway through his Under 16 season, he was one of a number that the HOY decided was too small, played down an age group most weeks. Always thought he was a decent player and was probably better getting away from Rangers at that time.

Academy hadn't been fit for purpose for some time, not really much to do with us going down the leagues in 2012. It was ripped up to start again when there was a change in HOY in December 2014, changes probably only became effective start of 2015/16 season.

I would love to see academy players progressing to the first team but academy football is a world away from SPFL. Historic academy team's results would suggest our run to the Challenege Cup Semis was a freakish season, as its unlikely to take place this season we can't compare.

We comfortably beat Berwick Rangers, probably deserved to beat Stranraer, were fortunate to progress against Ballymena and Solihull Moors whose lineups were closer to a reserve. sides. Comfortably beat a Wrexham reserve side and were a bit unfortunate to lose to ICT.

On the evidence of the Atletico Madrid game we didn't have a player who would get in their team. An advantage they have is that a number of their squad have played for their B team in the Spanish third tier, which is obviously a stepping stone from academy football to first team football.
 
If Dortmund, Leverkusen, Leipzig etc can all play teenagers then I’m not sure why we feel we can’t stick some of ours in against the Hamiltons and the St Mirrens of the world.
 
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The only youth Gerrard will give a chance to is other teams youth players he regularly brings in on loan!
 
For years people have been complaining about our young players never getting a real chance, this should be the season that these three play a real part over the course of the season.

Kennedy is arguably better suited to play as the left sided #10 than Kent is in terms of attributes, he of course is nowhere near Kent in terms of overall quality yet but he has more natural talent than Jones or Barker do. He is the best prospect at the club and it's a fairly open secret that we will lose him if he doesn't get a run in the first team soon.

Patterson is being touted as a future Scotland regular, he has made one senior appearance for Rangers and did absolutely fine, he didn't deserve to lose his place the following game and fits into our system better than anyone we have had in the past decade excluding Tavernier.

With Katic out for the season, Mayo coupled with Bassey should be sufficient cover for that spot. There is no point signing a designated squad player so I don't really think there's an argument against this one.

Does anyone disagree? I don't think you can make the argument that this season is too important. Celtic threw Frimpong in away to Aberdeen and he became a regular for them under comparable pressure to win that there is at Rangers

Massive season to be experimenting with youth. Be good to give them game time in certain games we have wrapped up already.
 
I’ll be very surprised if any of the 3 make a long term impact,our record apart from a few of bringing players through is poor.
 
If one of them breaks through I'll be delighted. To much at stake for me to rely on the 3 of them to make an impression this season
 
For Kennedy and Paterson they’re ability has got them knocking on the door, for Mayo it’s injury

is Mayo good enough? I know Aidan Wilson stepped up 2 years ago but he fell away very quickly
 
If our youth prospects can't play at Ibrox v Hamilton,St Midden, Ross Co. St Johnstone, they have no future at Ibrox. It's up to SG to have faith in our youth by including 1 on the bench for most home matches.
We will only have a youth policy when the board insist that Ross Wilson makes sure the Rangers manager is committed to youth. This can be done by limiting the number of players of 21 and over in the pool we buy. By getting rid of Flanagan, Halliday and Polster, we have freed up some space. Losing Barker, Jones, Middleton, Docherty, McRorie and possibly Murphy, more space is available for 3 starters and 3 youths.
 
If our youth prospects can't play at Ibrox v Hamilton,St Midden, Ross Co. St Johnstone, they have no future at Ibrox. It's up to SG to have faith in our youth by including 1 on the bench for most home matches.
We will only have a youth policy when the board insist that Ross Wilson makes sure the Rangers manager is committed to youth. This can be done by limiting the number of players of 21 and over in the pool we buy. By getting rid of Flanagan, Halliday and Polster, we have freed up some space. Losing Barker, Jones, Middleton, Docherty, McRorie and possibly Murphy, more space is available for 3 starters and 3 youths.

It's not about them not being good enough. It's about timing. They'll get there, it's just a bit early for many.

As evidenced by McPake, physically the most developed of the attacking players, struggling last season with Dundee. He's not quite there yet, but he's on the right track.

If 2 or 3 from our current group make it, we're doing well.
 
Kennedy will end up playing as a number 8 centre mid, he’s wasted out on the wing. And the games where’s he’s played in the middle he has been better when deeper

Yeah I couldn’t agree more,I don’t think he has enough pace for the wing. Since he’s switched to 8 or 10 he’s looked better. Great composure and Balance. I don’t see him playing as a winger for us.
 
Out of the 3 players mentioned Mayo is the most ready to step up. Good defender who can pass a ball too plus he has had first team experience on loan.

Kennedy and Patterson I would loan out as they are still a bit away from being in the 1st team squad.
 
It's not about them not being good enough. It's about timing. They'll get there, it's just a bit early for many.

As evidenced by McPake, physically the most developed of the attacking players, struggling last season with Dundee. He's not quite there yet, but he's on the right track.

If 2 or 3 from our current group make it, we're doing well.
McPake might not be good enough for the top division.
 
If what you're saying is true, then that smacks of self entitlement from Kennedy mate.

He's not long turned 18 and he's making demands that if he isn't playing in the 1st team he's off?

Gerrard took Patterson, Kennedy, Mebube and Maxwell to the Dubai training camp and only Patterson looked like a 1st team player.

Kennedy is a terrific prospect, but he'll need to prove himself better than Kent and Hagi before he's starting regularly this season.
Has he signed a new deal? Was there not FF chat that he was for the off and signing for the scum? Or was that all FF urban myth?
 
We've usually been turfed out in the first round of the Chllenge Cup.

This season we did better, but we struggled to beat Stranraer and Solihull Moors.

We then lost to Championship Inverness.

A bottom 6 Premiership side would've beaten us fairly comfortably.


On the same poimt mate we are talking about 1 player in amongst 10 other 1st team boys. So basically if you want to go that way our 1st team and a 18 year old would comfortably beat solihull.

Fact is if we cant blood a kid for 30mins of a game at Ibrox when can we? Nobody surely thinks they can take us to a title but defo think they can be used
 
Very clever.
If you want to call one, even two, as a debut season, I’ll admit I’m wrong.
You might remember Kennedy on the park as well so I’m wrong about him as well.

Nothing clever about it just stating it’s not actually there debut seasons. With the amount of games we play 10 appearances including from the bench should at the least be their aim.

Cant see it happening though.
 
If they are good enough to play then they'll play. Middleton proved that in Gerrard's first season. Hopefully that's part of the reason we are trimming the squad down so much and seeking to bring in a few players who will slot right into the first team. Rather than bloating our squad up with players who seldom play. I think that was our big mistake last season, opting to bring in loads of 'bodies' rather than adding a select few and bringing more youth into the fold. I would have sooner saw Middleton start while Kent was out, than play Barker or Ojo.

I think we have a few from the current crop coming through who will make it in the next couple of seasons. Big misconception among some of our support that everyone of them is a potential superstar we are holding back by not playing though. Most of them won't make it or won't make it big until they leave Rangers. A few will make the squad and then it's up to them to make the breakthrough. Happens at every major club in Europe. No club has an endless conveyor belt of talent at their disposal. Many will do what Middleton did and start like a rocket and then peter out a bit. That's where we need to show a bit of patience as a support and not write them off during that phase. It takes an exceptional talent to go from youth/development team football to perennial first team starter in one go. That's the bit we are shite at as a support, we neglect to accept that part of the deal.
 
For Kennedy and Paterson they’re ability has got them knocking on the door, for Mayo it’s injury

is Mayo good enough? I know Aidan Wilson stepped up 2 years ago but he fell away very quickly

Always been impressed when I've seen Mayo play. He's definitely got talent and his has the height. My worry would be he's still quite frail looking compared to the hammer throwers up front in most of the spfl teams. Obviously would like to see all 3 lads given a chance now and again if we are well ahead in games to see how they got on.
 
They need game time this season or they will be off.

Players now, really do need to be featuring at 18/19 years old on a semi regular basis for their own development.

we need to give game time in matches we are comfortably winning and the odd start in games against “lesser” opposition. They can’t be worse than Barker,Jones,Ojo et al.
 
They need game time this season or they will be off.

Players now, really do need to be featuring at 18/19 years old on a semi regular basis for their own development.

we need to give game time in matches we are comfortably winning and the odd start in games against “lesser” opposition. They can’t be worse than Barker,Jones,Ojo et al.
"Lesser" opponents dont play football against us. Its a longball slugfest. Unless our youngsters bulk up they will be easily out of their depth, and will be targeted. When i say bulk up, im not talking to the hulk proportions, but its been my criticism of a lot of youths we bring in too early, they are just too lightweight. When Tav plays in the back 4 there are games you deliberately see teams smash balls into his area all game long, because they identify his defensive elements of his game are not as strong. Imagine sticking young Mayo or Paterson up against a Dykes/Cosgrove/Doidge/Ikpeazu, or wily old timers like Naismith/Boyce...
For anyone away to say Frimpong at Celtic, he regularly gets targetted, agsainst us in the cup hes sent off & gives away a penalty
 
Loan moves aren't the answer for every single player. Some just need the opportunity to be thrown right in.

Just an example but Scott McKenna at Aberdeen couldn't get in the Ayr Utd team on loan and was set to be released, but an injury crisis gave him a chance and he hasn't looked back. So it's important not to judge players too much on loan either, maybe the environment just didn't suit either.

There's 18 year olds playing in better leagues than ours getting the chance.
 
Looking at the training pics it looks like Paterson and Mayo are first team squad players. Both have their initials on their training gear, unlike Dapo, McPake and Barjonas. Maybe a sign that they will be used as backup this season
 
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