Rangers urged to take Ajax, Red Bull Salzburg and Porto path to success - by putting their faith in youth

BlueMeanie

Well-Known Member
RANGERS are capable of reclaiming their position as the dominant team in Scotland in the coming seasons - if they focus on bringing through their best academy players instead of making multi-million pound signings.

FIFA yesterday gave the SFA the go-ahead to open a summer transfer window that will run until midnight on October 5 – not the end of August or start of September as has previously been the case – due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Ibrox manager Steven Gerrard has strengthened his squad considerably already by signing Ianis Hagi for £3m from Belgian club Genk and also bringing in Calvin Bassey from Leicester City and Jon McLaughlin from Sunderland.
However, fans of the Glasgow club are, with city rivals Celtic set to bid for a record-breaking 10th consecutive Scottish title in the 2020/21 campaign, eager to see Gerrard make more acquisitions in the coming weeks.
Former Rangers winger Pieter Huistra, though, believes his old employers can ensure their long-term success by shunning the international transfer market and putting their faith in developing outstanding young prospects.

Dutch internationalist Huistra played in this country during the Nine-In-A-Row era in the 1990s and can recall how first Graeme Souness and then his successor Walter Smith spent lavishly on renowned international stars at that time.
But the 53-year-old, who has worked as both a manager and sporting director across the world since retiring from playing, appreciates the game has changed beyond recognition since then and knows the Govan club no longer has the resources needed to bring in the same standard of footballer.
He feels they should follow the examples of Ajax in his homeland, Porto in Portugal and Red Bull Salzburg in Austria - and concentrate on promoting home-grown kids to their first team and bringing in and developing raw youngsters.
“Rangers have improved a little bit every year since they have returned to the top division,” said Huistra. “Every season they have got a little bit closer to Celtic. If they keep the momentum they have built up going then I believe in the next two or three years they will be past Celtic.
“They’re not back to where they were yet. When I was there we won everything (Rangers lifted five consecutive Scottish titles between 1990 and 1995 when Huistra was in the team). But if they keep on going they way they have been, keep working together and keep making the right decisions on which players to take to the club, they will get there.
“Rangers have to say what kind of club they want to be in the European game. It is completely different to when I was there. There was big money, there was investment and they brought in top international players who had played for their country at the World Cup. Now they can’t do that. They need a different strategy.
“They have to be more like Ajax to succeed in the game today. I have been at their academy in Glasgow and I thought there was a lot of talent there. They have to develop them. They have to make sure these players are ready to play in the first team. For me, it is the only way to do something.
“They should look at teams like Red Bull Salzburg, Ajax and Porto and try to emulate their success. There are always ways. It is possible. They need to keep investing in good young players. Of course, they need the right manager on board to develop these players as well. But I believe in Steven Gerrard, who came through the youth ranks at Liverpool, they have the man to do that.”
Huistra is currently, after spells in his native Netherlands, Indonesia, Japan and Slovakia, working under former Rangers striker Shota Arveladze on the coaching staff at Pakhtakor Tashkent in Uzbekistan. His forward-thinking philosophy is clearly paying off in Central Asia.
“We’re doing well,” he said. “Last season we won the quadruple. We won every competition apart from the Asian Champions League. This year the plan was to go really far in that tournament before football was suspended because of coronavirus outbreak.”
Huistra revealed how he and Arveladze, the Georgian forward who won every honour in Scottish football during his four seasons at Rangers in the 2000s, regularly regale their Pakhtakor players with tales of their trophy-laden stints at Ibrox.
“I’m assistant coach,” he said. “I am a mentor, an advisor, to the manager. But Shota is the leader of the project, he pulls it all together. It is nice that we both have the Rangers background. We share stories with the players every week.
“We both had spells at Ajax, Shota as a player and myself as a coach, too. But, strangely, I didn’t know him until we came to Tashkent. We were introduced by an agent and that is how the association came about. He is a great character. He has got huge charisma. It’s important to have an individual like that to lead a club.
“Rangers certainly have that at the moment with Steven Gerrard in charge. I still check to see how Rangers are doing and it has been good to see them getting closer to Celtic than they have been for some time now. I am sure if they keep progressing the way they have been they will be ahead of them soon.”
 
Any Ex Rangers player should know that this club cant hang around waiting for youngsters to click .... we need success now
 
Problem is Scottish players dont tend to be great. Salzburg work around it by bringing in young foreign talent.

We have a very limited catchment area in Scotland and NI. We could maybe do more to bring players from England. If you are in Amsterdam you are within a couple hours driving of a catchment area of over 20m people, so youth competition and talent pool will be far greater. Much the same for Central European teams, Northern Italy etc.
 
Realistically if we can get 1 or 2 a season making the step up then that would be significant progress.

I don’t see us ever being in a position where we have multiple youth players coming into the first team. Expectations and pressure levels are too high
 
We did, they just weren't good enough.

Perry
Hegarty
Crawford
Aird
McLeod
McKay
Mitchell
Naismith
Little
Murdoch
Hemmings

The only two that were, one had a stinking attitude and got loaned out, and the other was sold for cheap and the spivs siphoned the cash out the door for shite wifi or other scams.
 
Problem is Scottish players dont tend to be great. Salzburg work around it by bringing in young foreign talent.

Do you think that is the kid's fault or the environment they are in? (This isn't a dig at you, just a point for conversation).

Scottish kids get brought through youth ranks, then put into first teams where they are battered left, right and centre. No place to play football.
 
How do clubs om continent get young players from Africa, Asia and S America?

Our natural talent pool is not great, and too small and homogeneous. The identikit is a 5' 5" playmaker who lacks pace and is pushed over by a light breeze.

We should consider scouting London....Arsenal can't sign every lad aged 12-16 can they?
 
Do you think that is the kid's fault or the environment they are in? (This isn't a dig at you, just a point for conversation).

Scottish kids get brought through youth ranks, then put into first teams where they are battered left, right and centre. No place to play football.
Good question. Genuinely dont know. For years Scottish youth players were looked at from a physical perspective and the technical aspect was overlooked. I think we have moved past that slightly at youth level but not at top level.

I dont think our lifestyle or our culture helps.
 
Yeah thats all well and good for likes of ajax , porto who can get young lads from south america , africa ect but immigration laws in UK are different and make it difficult for us to cherry pick the best talent from non EU countries
 
The Ajax way really.

According to multiple sources, including very reliable sources such as Mike Verweij and Freek Jansen, Ajax has signed Brazilian wonderkid Antony of São Paolo. The 19-year-old winger will come over in the summer of 2020 for a maximum of € 29 million.
 
so spending big wages on kevin Kyle and Sandaza was a better option than bringing in some established young players?

I’m not so sure

What established young player was going to kill their career by coming to the bottom league of Scottish football, without us paying them a fortune in wages?

We signed David Templeton and nicky clark. they were established young players. Worked out well with them, didnt it?
 
Problem is Scottish players dont tend to be great. Salzburg work around it by bringing in young foreign talent.

Not to mention the small matter of Porto's link to South America.

You could essentially replace Rangers with any English or Scottish team's name and get the exactly same sentiment.

BTW, as it happens, I read the headline about Wigan handing a trashing to Hull yesterday and checked the article, noting that Kal Naismith scored. Immediately thought, ain't that one of our "talented and promising youngsters on loan"? Well, that chap is 28 now (and sure earned some coin down in England by now), what a shocker to my memory.
 
How do clubs om continent get young players from Africa, Asia and S America?

Our natural talent pool is not great, and too small and homogeneous. The identikit is a 5' 5" playmaker who lacks pace and is pushed over by a light breeze.

We should consider scouting London....Arsenal can't sign every lad aged 12-16 can they?

Much more relaxed rules on immigration. The British immigration system basically hinders any club in the UK from emulating what other top European sides do in those markets places. We've also just gone and made it more difficult for ourselves with regards to European born players as well.
 
We should have took this approach in 2012.

It’s far too high risk now trying to stop Celtic’s 9.75 in a row to rely on youngsters.

The signings under mccoist down the divisions are downright embarrassing.

If you look at kal naismith and kane hemming, they would have been much better options than throwing money at the likes of sandaza and Kevin Kyle in division 3.

Ally should have got shankland, Robertson and Spittal from Queens Park as well, but hindsight is a great thing.
 
Good question. Genuinely dont know. For years Scottish youth players were looked at from a physical perspective and the technical aspect was overlooked. I think we have moved past that slightly at youth level but not at top level.

I dont think our lifestyle or our culture helps.

We did have a young guy come up here and try to be skillful... and he was called "disrespectful".

Imagine reading that in the paper about yourself.
 
What established young player was going to kill their career by coming to the bottom league of Scottish football, without us paying them a fortune in wages?

We signed David Templeton and nicky clark. they were established young players. Worked out well with them, didnt it?

Kevin Kyle was on just under £8k a week. An up and coming youngster in Scotland outwith the bigger teams will be no where near even £2k a week. A fortune in wages to them would be even £3k a week.

I’m not sure it would destroy their careers. I would be jumping at the chance to play in front of a packed Ibrox every week whilst earning a bit more money.

David Templeton got 15 goals in 26 games in his first season before Injury. That’s not a bad return. Compare that with sandaza who got 2 in 20 or Kevin Kyle who got 3 in 15. There was significant resale value if templeton stayed fit - this wasn’t possible with the later two.

Nicky Clark has scored 32 in 68 for Queens just before signing for us. At the time I was happy with this signing. I think he was about 23 years old when we signed him. Wouldn’t have been on high wages but happy to be told otherwise. Compare this with Jon Daly who was 31 and achieved a slightly better goals - game ratio but with no resale value. Who were you happier with?

I’ll include Ryan Hardie in the 2014 season that should have been given a chance. Instead we resigned Kris Boyd.

I would rather gamble more on youth and if they don’t work out it doesn’t cost the club as much as paying for former washed up SPL average players, looking for one last pay day.
 
We should have took this approach in 2012.

It’s far too high risk now trying to stop Celtic’s 9.75 in a row to rely on youngsters.

Two things here.

Firstly, and for the umpteenth time, there was absolutely no interest at the club to develop a generation of youngsters while in the lower divisions. Both the charlatans who were running us at the time and the manager were only concerned with getting us back to the top flight ASAP which meant cobbling together a collection of older pros with a smattering of younger talent. I suspect that even if King had been successful in acquiring the club back then the result would have been exactly the same.

And secondly, there’s no 9.75, 9.5 or any other fraction about it - Celtic won 8 titles in a row and were then handed a 9th by a committee before the season had been mathematically concluded. They can count that if they want, but it completely invalidates any genuine merit to doing nine, ten or how many more in a row they might achieve now, and deep down they know it.
 
Scottish football for decades has had a credibility issue and the aftermath of 2012 cemented it’s standing in Europe as a bona fide farcical little backwater.

It’s nice to have young talent coming through but the environment we are in doesn’t allow for us to have a team full of them and it’s proved hard enough just to bring in the odd one who is good enough let alone have a team of youngsters. That said our youth development success rate MUST improve!

The shit polishing era will end eventually and no c@nt outside of separate entity FC gives a rat’s shit about diddy titles won in a league that was turned to ABSOLUTE shit when Rangers were removed so we must not be driven off course by the bullshit title sequence narrative the filth’s media poodles constantly bang on about and the likes of Sky sports and others purposely stir the shit too in order to create interest and hype things up.

There’s a process going on and the foundations are now in place for us to build the club back up to a position of strength which will hopefully benefit us out with the rubble of the SPL but we will get our rewards...it will in all likelihood be on top of a pile of shit as Celtic currently are but that’s not been our doing.

Sadly in an environment of ultra self interest and a strong whiff of corruption all around us we too should only be interested in ourselves from now on as it’s abundantly clear the best interests of the game are not the top priority in this nation and have long since ceased to be with few if any remotely interested in taking on board the opinions and suggestions from Rangers. It really is all about the Rangers in every way from here on in.
 
What established young player was going to kill their career by coming to the bottom league of Scottish football, without us paying them a fortune in wages?

We signed David Templeton and nicky clark. they were established young players. Worked out well with them, didnt it?

Sorry in what way was Nicky Clark an established young player? established where?
 
We should have took this approach in 2012.

It’s far too high risk now trying to stop Celtic’s 9.75 in a row to rely on youngsters.

You are more or less correct in your observation re. Rangers reliance on youth development - however, I'm afraid that train has left the station.

If there ever had been a time to give youth development a priority, it was during the period beginning in 2012 when we were relegated to the bowels of Scottish football. For such a strategy to succeed once the club was back in the SPL and hoping to challenge for the title, what needed to take place was the creation of a world-wide scouting network extending way beyond the UK in order to bring top talent to Ibrox. But even if such a network had existed, it's still an open question as to whether it would have succeeded in the context of Scottish football.
 
You are more or less correct in your observation re. Rangers reliance on youth development - however, I'm afraid that train has left the station.

If there ever had been a time to give youth development a priority, it was during the period beginning in 2012 when we were relegated to the bowels of Scottish football. For such a strategy to succeed once the club was back in the SPL and hoping to challenge for the title, what needed to take place was the creation of a world-wide scouting network extending way beyond the UK in order to bring top talent to Ibrox. But even if such a network had existed, it's still an open question as to whether it would have succeeded in the context of Scottish football.

Again though, that was never happening in 2012 with guys like Charles Green running the club or Ally McCoist in the dugout.

I also think the Rangers support would not have tolerated spending anymore time outwith the SPL than we did - look how apoplectic we were when we failed to get out of the Championship at the first time of asking.

The idea of an Ajax style conveyor belt of young talent at a club like ours has always been something of a pipe dream, IMO.
 
We did have a young guy come up here and try to be skillful... and he was called "disrespectful".

Imagine reading that in the paper about yourself.

Possibly the single most depressing display of football ignorance by our football institutions and media I’ve ever seen. Of course if Jimmy Johnstone news reels are played back its quite rightly described as skill, audacity, brilliance, imagination.
 
the only way we'd have been able to employ a youth system from 2012 would have been if we had the right owners (we didn't), the right manager (we didn't) and our fans would have been patient waiting to get into the top league (most of them weren't)

no point trying to say something could have existed when reality shows you it couldn't
 
It's hard enough to find youth anywhere with the right mentality. Lads becoming millionaires before they even hit the first teams down south and end up overhyped and underperform.
 
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