Glasgow Rangers are taking inspiration from two Premier League clubs, Southampton and Tottenham Hotspur as they try and bring through prospects at Ibrox.
Rangers’ head of academy Craig Mulholland has told the club’s official website that the current youth team has overachieved this season, and suggested that the structure in place is inspired by the systems implemented at Southampton and Tottenham.
The Gers have the SFA Youth Cup final to look forward to this week, less than a year after Mulholland made drastic changes to the structure at Murray Park, with the club’s official website confirming that a number of the older academy players were let go of, paving the way for a much younger under-20s side.
And reflecting on how the season has gone, Mulholland suggested that the club can be positive and insisted that emulating the success that the Premier League pair have enjoyed is the ambition for the Light Blues.
“What we decided to do was get rid of a lot of the older players and traditionally in the under 20s group Rangers have competed for trophies and medals,” he told the club’s official website.
“The fact they’re in a final is testament to work they have done but also the work that Graeme Murty, David McCallum and Colin Stewart have done.
Rangers academy coach Graeme Murty
“The average age of the group is under 18 so it is effectively taking an Under 18 team and putting it into an Under 20 competition.
“For Rangers that is a complete change of strategy but it is what clubs like Southampton and Spurs do time and time again and as a consequence they produce players.”
With Rangers looking for ways to close the gap to Celtic at the top of the table – which, for the time being, is much more difficult given the riches the Hoops receive from making the Champions League – the investment in the academy is surely a smart idea.
Rangers’ Myles Beerman in action with Celtic’s Patrick Roberts
It will obviously not reap instant dividends, but with the likes of Billy Gilmour and Liam Burt getting to see youngsters like Myles Beerman and David Bates move from the youth team into the first-team, and subsequently hold onto their places, it seems highly possible that the prospects will be fully determined to impress Pedro Caixinha and make the grade at Ibrox.
And if the club can create something like the conveyor-belts that Tottenham and Southampton have seemingly enjoyed the benefits of regularly over the last few years, then that will surely help close that gap over the coming years.
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