yuddie

Nails on heads in regards to this mate. Are we that shocked that Rangers doesn't take our academy seriously when Scottish football doesn't? Rangers,Celtic,Hearts and Aberdeen should all have B teams in the lower leagues with the cap at the championship.

Sensible.

I know Glasgow is a bit of a goldfish bowl in football terms but down south young players will have millions of eyes on them each week with 10x the scrutiny online too. I've always held the opinion that it's because we're so dominant relative to the league - with 3x the revenue of 3rd place (Hearts) that we can and should blood youngsters. If you can't develop your own when you're spending in a summer what the rest of the clubs generate in turnover then I'm sorry, you just aren't a serious football club. @Rousseau alluded to it earlier, the SFA and SPFL aren't serious organisations either or there would be B teams in the lower leagues - but that's by the bye. And I have to say, we just aren't that good a team in recent years to turn our noses up at the academy. We don't need to flood the team with youngsters but if we can have 2 or 3 that can get 1000-2000 minutes a season (over 60 games!) then that's the ideal. It really isn't that radical, it's only Scotland that's not following the trend of trusting younger players in recent years. There does seem to be that psyche that runs through Scotland and it's fanbases.

Aye I get that. What we've done previously clearly hasn't worked, so what else can we do? If we were a well run club we'd have an identity from u8's through to the seniors and blooding youngsters would make more sense than spending 3m on a 20 year old Morrocan or German. This isn't wishful thinking, it's happening at the top level with Liverpool, City, Utd etc. Don't flood the first team with them, but why a Robbie Fraser or Cole McKinnon couldn't come in for a home game against St Johnstone or County is bemusing. It just reeks of fear and short term ism. Fans would rather bin the academy than try and proactively use it - madness.

True enough. If no players are coming through from a youth cup winning team then there's something inherently wrong with your academy and pathway to the first team though imo. Even Jay fucking Spearing got games for Liverpool after winning with the unders way back when.

Lads like Munn, Gentles and Nsio should be earmarked for the first team imo. In any other league in Europe that has a youth cup for their respective association, the winners will have players bled into the first team. Mainoo and Garnacho as a recent example. Rangers should do the same.

Onana clearly has the ingredients to be a world beater. Still only 22 - but for his price tag I do feel that he's flattered to deceive a bit at Everton. Must be well thought of in the game because there's always links in the media to big hitters and he's had call ups throughout his career - he even made the squad at Qatar. Still can't quite put it all together as of yet imo.

Can't just be me who thinks that Lewandowski run up was barely legal? Felt for the French keeper a bit.

Not sure how much of a development fee they expect tbh - would anything over 1m be a record?

You lack a WC attacker though - the Bale effect if you will. Or Lewandoski, Haaland etc. I sympathise with Clarke in the way that McGinn and McTominay are his best goal threats and they're essentially box to box midfielders. You don't even have a good winger. Doak could be but the lads 18 and was mismanaged by Clarke in the buildup when he got injured. That smacked of selection desperation from him and the poor lad got crocked after just returning from injury - I'm surprised more wasn't made of that. He's lucky Klopp left Liverpool because he would've gone through the fucking roof.

In fairness I think I've seen him have one poor game for us when he's played (Dumbarton?) and whenever he has we've usually kept a clean sheet. In his situation it was more the case that he wasn't given an extended run in the team. He took his chance by and large in isolated games imo. Which is endemic to our club and how we manage youth players, throw them in when we're in the midst of an injury crisis or playing Dumbarton in the cup and then freeze them out for the rest of the year. The way we handle our youth players is a joke.

Ngl, I'd rather keep him and sell Lammers. Definitely a whiff of the Sakala sale about this in that we're flogging a known quantity for goals with a good fitness record. Otherwise we're hoping for 2 strikers to come in and do well straight away with no insurance. Especially with Danilo just coming back from a bad injury and it being unclear how he'll be.

Tbh I don't think anything gets much better for Scotland unless there's serious investment into grass roots Infrastructure - you just aren't producing the players you were 40 or 50 years ago. You need to look at what the Dutch or Danes are doing. Problem is the SFA and it's suits are bent.

Commiserations lads. That ending was amusing though.

The lads are back in tomorrow, a silver lining of us having 0 sellable assets and decent performers last season is the complete and utter lack of internationals we have which means the whole squad will be in pretty much. Bar signings. Here's the key dates for Pre Season: Rangers Men’s First-Team Key Dates 24 June – Return to training 7 July – Travel to Netherlands 13 July – Ajax (N) 20 July – Manchester United (N – Edinburgh) 24 July – Birmingham City (A) 27 July – Union Berlin (A) Not sure if the travelling from Edinburgh to Brum and then Berlin makes too much sense but hopefully we get it right this summer.

Interesting to note that the Kop at St Andrews runs parallel to the pitch, i.e the main stand. One of the only stadiums I can think of in British football where the home ends on the sidelines!

Do you mean SPFL league games this season? The only team I recall shelling our box with long throws was Hearts - and generally they did sweet fa. Was it one of their full backs? Outside of that if you're talking about nostalgia, then Rory Delap is the one I think of, NI International. What set him apart wasn't the length of the throws, it was the trajectory - it was like a flat javelin throw. He should be inducted into the Premier Leagur HOF too imo, but that's a debate for another day.

Aye, having the first OF at CP is unfortunate in that sense. Not that it would cover the cost for all the games but it would do a fair bit.

Would a dozen games at Murrayfield hit us financially or would we break even? If that's where we're playing.

When do you reckon we'll get a confirmation of venue change? I'm not itk so maybe it's already unofficial. Also the shite that the other mob are saying is geniunely mental. Deranged.

Kalvin Phillips one was strange aye. His comments on their fitness and how tired they are matched what I saw in the two games though, the lads looked like they were wading through custard at times.

*tin hat on* It's right that it was disallowed. That happens at Ibrox and we're screaming for it to be overturned. Happens anywhere we are, tbh.

No need to apologise, it was a light hearted remark. I doubt we'll get past the last 16 for what it's worth.

Looking forward to this game, reckon the Dutch can turn them over tbh.

I'm English mate, not going to apologise for it either 😜