The Rangers Manager - Post Takeover (Hypothetical)

[bmck 117]

Cal, you argued this before, but I'll stick it out again. Would it be better to get rid of the youth setup altogether and invest all the money in scouting youth players and buying the best before they're expensive? You wait to see which young players are making it in Scotland - say 4 over 4 years to make it analagous to our current system - and by them for a million each. Would that be less expensive than Murray Park?

[Dr Preston Burke 0]

In the last 10 years we have produced Barry Nicholson, Maurice Ross, Bob Malcolm, Stephen Hughes, Ross McCormack, Chris Burke, Charlie Adam, John Fleck, Danny Wilson, Allan McGregor, Graeme Smith, Steven Smith, Steven MacLean all of whom have built solid careers for themselves

 

I do think some fans are too ambitious and feel that because we once produced a Barry Ferguson, we should be producing players of a similar standard every year

Edited February 16, 2010 by Dr Preston Burke

[Frankie 8,674]

IIRC, UEFA rules mean we need to have a certain complement of club-reared players...

 

If we cherry picked the best talent from other clubs, they'd soon get wise to it and inflate prices.

[bmck 117]

Aye, that's true.

[Dr Preston Burke 0]

P.S. How the hell did i forget Alan Hutton?

[OnlyOneAmoruso 0]

With the state of the Scottish team and SPL, I think it's asking a lot for one club to start producing a conveyor belt of top class players. To be honest I would see that as a miracle.

 

I think we have revamped the youth setup at Rangers several times over the last 10 years and have lately been one of the more successful clubs in producing good professional players.

 

I really think that the good work by hard working professionals at Rangers is ignored by some due to the fact that the club don't produce a stream players of Rangers quality. That to me is false expectations since you are expecting one club to produce the best players in Scotland and possibly the UK year on year.

 

I don't think there are many clubs in the world who have come close to doing this.

 

People bandy about names like Man U and Ajax, but just how many players have they developed from youths and still playing for them, that are first choice internationals for England and Netherlands?

 

Those international teams are not full of players from those clubs, but for Rangers youth section to satisfy the critics that would have to be the state of play here.

 

If anyone is capable of achieving this supposedly simple task for Rangers then I'd love them to do it but it sounds like believing in fantasy fiction to me. I really don't think there is any enchanted chalice or magic wand.

 

Good point mate but to take Ajax as an example again (sorry Pete) thats almost my point. The players become simply too good for Ajax and are sold for massive amounts of money which is then reinvested in grassroots and the first team squad. Players such as Van Der Saar, Seedorf, Kluivert, De Boer x 2, Kanu etc were eventually replaced by players such as Van Der Vaart, Huntelaar, Babel, Sneijder, Heitinga, Nigel De Jong and all have moved onto bigger clubs and been replaced at a fraction of the cost with money further money ploughed into grass roots. Only in the last 5 or 6 years has this appeared to dry up slightly as other clubs appear to have cottoned on to how the process works.

 

Some of those examples are not definite, for example Sneijder of course didn't directly replace Ronald De Boer in the team but you get the drift.

 

The youth set up now is certainly much improved on years gone by but until Auchenhowie becomes a youth academy rather than just a training facility I don't think we'll see it's full potential.

 

I hope you didn't get the wrong impression by my OP, I was merely putting some thoughts out there. I don't think it's a simple task but I don't think it's the stuff of fiction either.

[OnlyOneAmoruso 0]

In the last 10 years we have produced Barry Nicholson, Maurice Ross, Bob Malcolm, Stephen Hughes, Ross McCormack, Chris Burke, Charlie Adam, John Fleck, Danny Wilson, Allan McGregor, Graeme Smith, Steven Smith, Steven MacLean all of whom have built solid careers for themselves

 

I do think some fans are too ambitious and feel that because we once produced a Barry Ferguson, we should be producing players of a similar standard every year

 

While solid players, I don't think anyone can seriously take that group of players as evidence that our youth system is a success?

[bmck 117]

While solid players, I don't think anyone can seriously take that group of players as evidence that our youth system is a success?

 

It means it can succesfully produce solid players, and the question whether it's possible for one club to do more.

[rbr 1,270]

We cannot go down the Arsenal route , they pay an absolute fortune on their young players , something we would never be able to afford . Better coaching and more time working with a ball would help , you kids are generally fit anyway so why we waste time running is beyond me , it should all be about ball control at least until 15 or 16 , fitness can always be worked on later , that's what the europeans believe from what I have seen and read

[Dr Preston Burke 0]

While solid players, I don't think anyone can seriously take that group of players as evidence that our youth system is a success?

 

Hutton, McGregor, Wilson, Fleck, Adam, McCormack would collect a combined transfer fee of over �£20 million if they were all sold by their clubs today. Whilst hardly perfect, our youth system churns out numerous players who will have above average careers which is all that can really be expected from a footballing backwater

Edited February 16, 2010 by Dr Preston Burke