Youngsters who will make the grade?

[Totti 0]

Our squad is threadbare and out of necessity many youth players will likely be required. Which ones do you think should play? Which are good enough? John Fleck has for some time supposedly been the player of the future. He did seem promising but was often moved around positionally and never really found his groove. From what I can see his ideal position seems to be a 'classic no 10' type player off the main striker, or on the left in a deep lying forward role in a 4-3-3. I think he's 19 now and at an age where he really needs to start playing first team football more often.

 

Jordan McMillan was meant to also have a good future, at 22 and seemingly miles off the first team what chance does he have? Is he good enough?

 

It's good to see Hutton and Wylde coming through, who else could make the grade?

 

With the state of our finances and the global economy, kids really are or should be the future. But it's a case of if they'll get a chance and whether they are good enough. In the last 10-15 years there has not been a plethora of talent coming through the Ibrox ranks but things do look a bit better.

[OnlyOneAmoruso 0]

It appears Hutton has jumped ahead of Jamie Ness and Stephen Stirling in the queue, not sure the reasoning behind this.

 

I'd like to see more of Ross Perry and would love Archie Campbell to get a little bit of gametime. The fans will love him.

 

Other than that everyone else is a bit too young to be looking to make an impact. Players like Kamil Wiktorski, Darren Cole, Kal Naismith and Kane Hemmings look promising though.

 

Don't see a future for McMillan, Shinnie, Loy or Little but happy to be proved wrong.

[Frankie 8,843]

I'm quite comfortable with the number of players who have made the breakthrough in recent years.

 

We can't expect to bring through more than 2-3 a season IMO given the (often unreasonable) expectations of the fans so Hutton, Wylde and Fleck doing the business this year would be a good start.

 

Unfortunately, while older lads like McMillan and Loy seem able to do the business in the reserves, they lack the trust of the manager in the first XI. As such, we're then looking back towards Archie Campbell and Jamie Ness to supplement the squad.

[Super_Ally 0]

Tottie, I think it's obvious that Fleck would have seen more game time had he not had his injury troubles. As you point out though, the John Fleck's are few and far between for us.

 

Speaking of Perry, an Oxford fan comes into my gym, said that he was impressed by Perry. He went down there with Kinniburgh who at the time was rated the better prospect, but this guy rated Perry better. Was disappointed not to get him back. Obviously a pishy level of football, but first team experience none the less. Did Perry not partner Wilson at the back for Scotland youth teams.

[OnlyOneAmoruso 0]

Thats right mate.

 

I think the emergence of Wilson set Perry back a bit. It's a tough position he plays as given the restrictions of the bench, you're always going to favour a youngster who can slot into a couple of positions (ala Wylde and McMillan) rather than just a straight forward centre half. Another point to make is that it's very rare for a centre half to be substituted barring injuries so I think that could hinder him also.

[ian1964 10,831]

All of the above mentioned youths do have potential,what we need for them to do is start making an impact when given any game time and push themselves to the max,they will never have a better opportunity to break through into the first team.

[pete 2,511]

I think what has happened at Feynoord is the perfect example that a team of young players no matter the amount of talent is going to struggle. Feynoord are completely skint and are playing mostly young players. They went down the road many believed we would have to in promoting youth players instead of buying. They are now harbouring near the bottom of the league and lost 10-0 to PSV.(That was a one off fluke imo).

For me the best way to bring the youth through is to play them when the game is won or for a striker you can always say come on son we need a goal run your guts out for a half hour

 

PS

The next batch of Feynoord Youth are supposed to be of a really good class having won the league at all levels.