The Rangers academy may not match their Glasgow rivals for productivity but that’s not to say they don’t produce talent in the blue half of the city.
With frustrating financial restrictions preventing Rangers from making a splash on their return to the top flight this season, their academy system looks likely to take on extra importance in the coming years.
But would any of these former Ibrox fledglings force their way into Graeme Murty’s first-team plans?
Allan McGregor
Something of a relic from a bygone era, McGregor manned the sticks at Ibrox during the calm before the financial storm. A three time title winner and a 35 time Scotland international, the now-35-year-old jumped ship after the events of 2012, proving himself in the Premier League with Hull City.
He’d still be there now if not for a season-disrupting injury that forced him to drop down a division with Cardiff.
Alan Hutton
Tottenham Hotspur fought tooth and nail to drag Alan Hutton from Ibrox in the winter of 2008. And if his £9 million price tag appeared rather steep at the time, as reported by the BBC, hindsight doesn’t do Daniel Levy any favours. Occasionally solid, never spectacular, the Aston Villa right-back has still managed to accumulate an impressive 50 international caps.
Danny Wilson
‘The New Alan Hansen’, they called him. Wilson may have one Scottish Premiership title to his name but European Cup finals seem a long way off for a defender that continues to divide Rangers fans in his second spell at the club.
Whereas Hansen played over 400 league games for Liverpool, his apparent protégé managed just two after completing a protracted £2 million move in 2010, as reported by STV. The fact he found himself returning to Ibrox in 2015 suggests the expectation was simply too much to bare.
Gary Mackenzie
Now 31, the St Mirren centre-back’s dreams of an international debut look likely to go unfulfilled. Mackenzie was called up twice between 2011 and 2012 although he might have earned a slice of recognition if he had remained at Rangers beyond just two league games.
“I would have loved to have got my chance when I was with Rangers, but it never happened for me,” the former Blackpool and MK Dons defender told the Scottish Sun in 2009.
Still, a few fans would swap him for Rob Kiernan.
Steven Smith
After six years in and around the first team picture, Smith spent just three seasons away from Ibrox before returning in 2013 to aid their rise through the lower leagues.
These days, the left back is now captain of Kilmarnock, helping guide the Ayrshire outfit to the relative obscurity of mid-table.
Charlie Adam
The talisman of one of British football’s great neutral favourites, Adam’s twelve goals from midfield may not have salvaged Blackpool’s Premier League status but it did earn him an albeit disenchanting move to Anfield in 2011.
However, with his contract at current club Stoke expiring at the end of the season, what chance Rangers’ 2007 Young Player of the Year returning home in the summer?
Andy Halliday
Something of an emblem of Rangers’ decline, Halliday remains a regular figure in the club’s midfield though his homegrown status does not automatically shield him from criticism.
Hard-working yet limited, the midfield scrapper returned to Ibrox in 2015 nine years after being released and bouncing round the lower leagues of English football.
Chris Burke
The 33-year-old may no longer be the effervescent winger with an eye for a spectacular that lit up the Championship during spells with Cardiff and Birmingham but his signing appeared a major coup for Ross County in the summer.
However, Burke has been restricted to just six appearances all season as he heads into the twilight of a career that began with over 100 appearances in Rangers colours.
Steven Naismith
Blending infectious work-rate with tactical intelligence and quick-footed vision, versatile forward Naismith is one of the most naturally gifted Scottish footballers this side of the century. Resigning for Rangers from Kilmarnock in 2007, the 43-time international truly excelled under Roberto Martinez’s free-flowing football at Everton, notably netting a hat-trick off the bench against champions Chelsea.
His 13 months at Norwich, however, have been distinctly less productive.
Georgios Efrem
The name will mean little to Rangers fans and, in all honesty, why should it. Plucked from Arsenal’s eminent academy in 2007, Efrem was released just two years later after no first-team appearances and a brief and forgettable loan stint at Dundee.
These days, however, he’s an established international and the first player ever to score a hat-trick for his country. That country may be Cyprus but the point still stands.
At APOEL since 2014, Efrem has also made the odd Champions League appearance.
Ross McCormack
It’s not been the easiest season for McCormack, with just four goals and one infamous broken fence. Nonetheless, there’s a reason the Nottingham Forest forward, on loan from Aston Villa, has commanded over £20 million in transfer fees since 2014.
McCormack netted 89 goals in 2012 Championship appearances from 2011 to 2016. If Rangers have a ‘one that got away’, the 30-year-old is a likely candidate. After all, he did score a Champions League equaliser against Porto in one brief appearance for the club.
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