Rangers must put faith in B team players as research backs up policy
The final game of the 2021-22 campaign saw a wave of B team players feature for Rangers and it has to be the basis for our future.
Alex Lowry, Leon King and Alfie Devine have all made their first starts for the Light Blues since Giovanni van Bronckhorst arrived at the club in November when Steven Gerrard left for Aston Villa.
Other youngsters such as Cole McKinnon, Charlie McCann, Tony Weston and Ross McCausland all came off the bench in that game too and they all have the same thing in common.
They all made their senior debuts for the B team at Auchenhowie in the Lowland League and Rangers Head of Academy, Craig Mulholland, knows the importance of our inclusion in the fifth tier of Scottish football.
“When you watch the likes of Alex Lowry speak after his game at Tynecastle, Cole McKinnon, Adam Devine, they all reference the Lowland League as being important,” Mulholland said to Rangers TV.
All the research suggests you have to make your debut and play against men by the age of 17, we’re trying to expose our players to men’s football as early as we can.
“Had these players not been in the building, been working with our coaches in a Rangers style, not been getting pushed by the sports scientists and analysts every day, they might have been on loan somewhere else and by the end of the season we ended up with 10 graduates having played in the first team, that wouldn’t have happened had those B team players been out on loan.”
It’s all well and good having these youngsters playing every week against men of all ages but you also need a manager that is willing to take chances every now and then and that is the next step for van Bronckhorst.
He made a good start on that in the early rounds of the Scottish Cup and it helped us unearth Lowry who has gone on to be a good substitute to have and he maybe should get more chances next season.
If he can keep bringing through three or four players each season to a first-team involvement then we will soon have a squad that doesn’t need to rely on transfers to challenge for honours in Scotland.
In other Rangers news, Allan McGregor has a very big offer from an unnamed club in the Middle East but he may not sign it despite the pay rise he would receive.