King insists Rangers can rely on youth

[forlanssister 3,114]

Cue the no money cry's.

 

 

Dave King, the Rangers chairman, has declared his satisfaction with the club’s strategy of developing their own young players and stated his belief that the much-criticised Auchenhowie training centre is finally starting to produce talent for the future.

 

Rangers and manager Pedro Caixinha have been buoyed by their 3-0 win against second-placed Aberdeen at Pittodrie, and the South Africa-based King chose the morning after to launch season ticket renewals. Amid assurances of financial support for Caixinha and stressing the need for a winning mentality, it was his optimism about the club’s young players that caught the eye.

 

Built as Murray Park 16 years ago at a cost of £14 million, the training centre at Milngavie has not lived up to expectations. The high cost of maintaining the 15 hectare centre, which King acknowledged yesterday, has been a further source of frustration for Rangers. But with the likes of 15-year-old midfielder Billy Gilmour provoking a transfer battle among the cream of English clubs and Caixinha happy to show faith in his younger players, such as defenders Myles Beerman and David Bates, who played at Pittodrie, King underlined the importance of producing their own stars of the future.

 

Craig Mulholland, academy head, and former caretaker manager Graeme Murty, who is back in his role as head development squad coach, clearly have an important role to play.

 

King said: “The maintenance of Ibrox and Auchenhowie is a never-ending and costly process. But it is a price we must continuously pay in order to boast two such fantastic facilities and advance the excellent youth development process that we have put in place.

 

“Much has been achieved in the past year and the club structures are significantly better than a year ago. Our academy structures and young players are more promising than at any time since my first association with the club almost 20 years ago. Auchenhowie is finally looking fit for purpose and is showing a vibrancy hitherto unseen.”

 

King was keen to stress that he would give financial backing to his new Portuguese appointment and revealed the club could have waited until his contract in Qatar had run out to save money, instead of appointing him towards the close of an underwhelming season. He also appeared to take another dig at former manager Mark Warburton who is now at Nottingham Forest.

 

He said: “Despite a relatively disappointing campaign up to this point, we have taken the necessary steps to revitalise the team and its performance. Of particular note is the carefully researched appointment of a new management unit headed by Pedro Caixinha.

 

“Funds are available to help Pedro shape his own team. It is important that our supporters continue to see Rangers playing attractive football, but attractive football must not be pursued at the cost of failing to win.

 

“We must reinstate the winning mentality expected of the most successful club in the world in terms of domestic league titles. This winning mentality is only one of the significant qualities that I believe we have reintroduced with the new manager and his support staff.

 

“We could have avoided the significant financial compensation we incurred to bring the new management team on board by delaying the appointment until the end of the season.

 

“However, we believe it is in the club’s interest to give Pedro the balance of this season to assess the squad and make preparations in advance of the new season and the early competitive start we envisage with Europa League qualifiers.”

 

Caixinha further put his own stamp on his new regime at Ibrox yesterday by appointing former player Jonatan Johansson as his No 3. The Finn saw off competition from a host of fellow former Rangers players, including Barry Ferguson, John Brown, Alex Rae and Kevin Thomson, to land the post of assistant coach, providing Caixinha with the “local knowledge” he wanted.

 

Johansson spent three years at Ibrox as a player and returned to Scotland to coach Motherwell’s under-20s. He will combine his role at Ibrox with being assistant manager to Markku Kanerva, who is in charge of Finland.

 

The appointment of Johansson was hailed as a masterstroke by his countryman, former Dundee United manager Mixu Paatelainen, who stated: “I’d regard Jonatan as an honest, very loyal person who has experience of playing at the top level. He iwill be a pleasure to work with.”

 

Johansson joined Rangers under manager Dick Adovcaat in 1997 and scored 21 times in three years at the club.

 

 

 

 

 

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/scotland/king-insists-rangers-can-rely-on-youth-s7s3ffgsc

[pete 2,499]

The great thing about taking Jonatan Johansson is that he will have a great knowledge of the Finnish scene and be an excellent Scout for players over there. We should now have good contacts in Finland and Portugal for the top youth.

Edited April 11, 2017 by pete

[Bearman 9]

Need investment NOW to stop them running up 10 titles on the trot. Simples!

[pete 2,499]

Need investment NOW to stop them running up 10 titles on the trot. Simples!

 

I just want to give a comment from Joop Munsterman who was the Chairman of FC Twente that won the Dutch league for the first time ever. Success is like walking a tightrope. One mistake or wrong turn and you fall off the perch.

[JFK-1 1,693]

I don't think he is necessarily saying that there will be no investment. I highly doubt he is depending on Auchenhowie to strengthen the team to the required level over the next few years. The only long term solution to our future ambitions isn't Auchenhowie it's getting out of this league which given the TV/money reality of modern professional football isn't an unlikely prospect down the line. The TV moguls can buy anything their billions desire.

 

It all fell apart for us 20 or so years ago when there was a double hammer blow with both blows falling around the same time. We had the Bosman ruling in 1995 which forever and seismically changed the face of the game and around that same time the sky TV behemoth began pouring rivers of money into the favoured location and it goes without saying that Scotland wasn't that location.

 

Gascoigne also joined us that same year of the Bosman ruling and the beginning of the sky cash cow kicking in down South and I remember some commentator or other saying at the time that Paul Gascoigne would be the last big English international to come to Scotland. I didn't take much heed of the comment at the time but with hindsight it was prophetic.

 

The only way out of this mediocrity is to get out of this less than mediocre league. I now wish we had applied to get into a lower tier of the English setup in 2012 though admittedly I wasn't so keen on that idea at the time. Events of the past 5 years and events on an almost weekly basis right now have turned me against the whole Scottish setup maybe irrevocably.

 

I would love to just get out and give the whole poison clan what they claim to want. Let them stew in their own bile and become even more mediocre in a league with no Rangers in it. See where that gets them. We don't need them, but one real and never to be openly admitted source of their spite is that they need us and they know it. And apparently they hate us for it. It's like hating a sugar daddy who brings you nothing but goodies.

[chilledbear 16]

Really enjoy seeing young lads make the leap from youth football to the first team.

 

Reading reports from the likes of elf, there seems to be a few in with a chance.

 

As for investing in transfers, we really also have to invest in a scouting system (DoF), for the future.

[Bluedell 5,679]

Need investment NOW to stop them running up 10 titles on the trot. Simples!

 

I can't see any meaningful investment being made in the near future. The current directors have invested cash and may invest a bit more but even if they do, some of it will be eaten up by day-to-day expenses.

 

There's nobody else waiting in the wings, so there isn't any other option.

 

I'd be surprised if our transfer budget was more than £2m net for next season.

[der Berliner 3,811]

Methinks we already recruited Atayaki the not-so-Finnish looking Finn from JJ's home country. He looks rather skilled too.

 

The problem with youngsters and Rangers is that unless they become an instant hit and show real talent (as e.g. Beerman has now), they traditionally have a hard task to force their way into the first team. Not least because of us and our demands of constant success and high standards. It requires dire circumstances or managers willing to go against that "performance stream" to enable them to get their time with the first team and on the pitch. More often than not, we face a struggle of some sort - just as now for Europe - and hardly any manager will throw in a(n untried) youngster if he has veterans (even utility players) for any given position. You would hope that the Swifts get a place in a new Scotish league set-up, so theiy can hone their skills week in and week out in meaningful competitve matches.

[ian1964 10,761]

Serge Atayaki

 

 

[union 0]

I can't see any meaningful investment being made in the near future. The current directors have invested cash and may invest a bit more but even if they do, some of it will be eaten up by day-to-day expenses.

 

There's nobody else waiting in the wings, so there isn't any other option.

 

I'd be surprised if our transfer budget was more than £2m net for next season.

 

After the high of Sunday I was hoping for good news re investment,sadly I was wrong.