Rangers Academy chief details 'complicated' return and hails loan stars

rangers robby mccrorie — Goalkeeper, Robby McCrorie of Scotland in action during the UEFA European Under-21 Championship group 4 qualifying match between Netherlands and Scotland at Stadion De Vijverberg on… (Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images)

Rangers Academy chief Craig Mulholland has hailed the progress made by the Gers’ youth set-up as lauded the number of Ibrox youngsters on loan with clubs in Scotland’s top two tiers.

The lies of Stephen Kelly, Kai Kennedy, Lewis Mayo, Robby McCrorie and others have spent the season out on loan and Mulholland contrasts it to when he took over the role and few, if any, of the Rangers kids were close to reaching that level.

With football finally returning for the under-18s and B team, Mulholland has had a difficult time trying to find organise fixtures and adjust to the ongoing restrictions that remainin place.

“One of the challenges we had was that we knew under-18 football would return, first-team football could return at League One and League Two level but there’s no structure as we have talked often about between under-18 and first-team in this country,” Mulholland told Rangers TV.

“It was further complicated by the pandemic because you were allowed to return as a consequence of the league you were in and the fact that the B-team weren’t in a league meant we had to find other options.

“Credit to all the management staff around the club that we managed to get all the boys in the B-team out on loan, some of the loans have been more successful than others but I think the loan opportunity has really changed for us.

“When we started the project five or six years ago most of our boys that were on loan were in League One or League Two, we have now got about 10 players over the top two leagues in Scotland and they are not just out there for their development they are contributing.”