Rangers have confirmed the signing of four under-18s for the club’s professional Academy programme with three promotions from the Gers’ schoolboy programme and one signing from Hearts.
Zak McKay, Ryan Duncan & Kristian Webster have all stepped up from the Gers’ schoolboy talent programme while Greig Allen heads to Ibrox from Edinburgh rivals Hearts’ Academy as they all sign their first professional contracts.
Rangers‘ Academy head Craig Mulholland welcomed the quartet to the Gers’ youth set up as he looked ahead to helping them progress and potentially challenging for first-team place at Ibrox.
“This is an exciting time of year for our new recruits who are starting out for the first time as professional footballers,” Mulholland told Rangers TV.
“Zak, Ryan and Kristian all join us from our schoolboy programme and will join our under-18 group. This is a massive moment for the boys but also for their families who I know are very proud.
“Greig joins our professional ranks from Hearts and he is a young player our recruitment team have tracked for some time.
“The point when players join our under-18 team as first year professionals is one of the key milestone moments in the Academy and Ross Wilson has made clear in our overall football strategy, as we create a modern Rangers, we must combine internal development and external recruitment and it is pleasing that we have achieved both.
“It goes without saying that while this is a huge achievement for the boys and they should be rightly proud, that they are only starting on the next part of their journey and there is now lots of hard work and many challenges that await on their own unique development plan.
“At Rangers our job is to provide the best coaches, sports science, medicine, analysis, facilities and more, the players job is to embrace this each and every day, never waste a moment, and push themselves to maximise their learning. We wish all of the boys well.”
Huge season ahead for Rangers’ Academy sides
The quartet come into the under-18 squad at the ideal time as the Gers gear up for a historic campaign with Rangers B competing in the Lowland League, Glasgow Cup and UEFA Youth League while the under-18s also have the CAS League and Scottish FA Youth Cup to challenge for.
That should see plenty of opportunities for game time for the young Rangers players and help push them towards a place in Steven Gerrard’s first-team squad.
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