Neil Warnock raves about Rangers’ youth players

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Manager Neil Warnock has hailed the Rangers youth ranks.

Cardiff City boss Neil Warnock has told talkSPORT (Alan Brazil’s Sports Breakfast, 20/3) that he thinks Rangers have an impressive youth setup at Ibrox.

The Gers have been fighting to get back to the summit of Scottish football since their 2012 liquidation and demotion, and part of their recovery means they have had to re-tool their youth ranks.

The likes of Allan McGregor, Chris Burke, Alan Hutton, Charlie Adam, John Fleck, Danny Wilson, Jamie Ness, Barrie McKay and Lewis MacLeod all came up through the Rangers ranks before heading to England, and the Gers need to start churning out more talent.

Defender Ross McCrorie has shown flashes of his huge potential this season after coming up through the ranks with the club, whilst a host of players are also on the fringes of the first team setup.

In fact, Scotland Under-19’s took on Denmark last month, and the starting line-up contained five Rangers players, as Kieran Wright, Aidan Wilson, Jamie Barjonas, Matthew Shiels and Glenn Middleton all featured.

With Aidan McAdams and Zak Rudden on the bench, Rangers had huge representation in the Scotland Under-19’s, and recently sold Billy Gilmour to Chelsea at the age of just 15.

Rangers may not be full of academy graduates in their first team right now, but there is certainly reason to be optimistic on that front, and now Neil Warnock has hailed the club’s academy ranks.

Warnock, speaking to talkSPORT (Alan Brazil’s Sports Breakfast, 20/3), suggested that Rangers’ youth players were ‘impressive’ when he went up to see them in training at the ages of just 14 and 15, claiming they can lead the resurgence of Scottish football.

“I remember taking my lad to Rangers a few years ago for some training,” said Warnock. “I was impressed by the youths there. I haven’t seen 14 or 15 year olds as good as that. They’ve got to be close to that first-team now. The ability they had…I thought, ‘Wow, this is a comeback for Scottish football,” he added.