Michael Beale hands first-team opportunity to five Rangers academy starlets for pre-season training
Michael Beale has handed first-team training opportunities to five academy starlets at Rangers as the club returned over the weekend, report the Daily Record (2 July).
The first-team returned to training after a break following the end of the season, with the stars who didn’t feature during the most recent international break returning for early tests.
But with the squad not at full capacity, Beale drafted in five youngsters from the academy to hand them an opportunity to hang with the first-team and potentially impress ahead of the new season.
“Rangers boss Michael Beale has given a number of rising stars the chance to impress in pre-season,” they wrote.
“The Light Blues returned to training this weekend and the Rangers boss has boosted his squad with a number of their academy graduates.
“Lewis Mayo has joined Ben Williamson, Cole McKinnon, Kieran Wright and Arron Lyall going through their paces with the first-team.”
Opportunity
Nobody will be expecting any of the five players to have a serious impact or place in the first-team squad for the 2023/24 season.
But to give the players the opportunity to impress the manager and even their colleagues in the squad is something that shouldn’t be ignored, because it will make those players hungry.
The likes of Leon King and Alex Lowry have shown that there is a path for progression from the academy into the first-team, and while both are more likely to go out on loan this season than stick around at Ibrox the idea is about helping them to develop into better footballers.
How long these five starlets are involved in sessions for is up to Beale, but some good performances during pre-season will only help them to cement their place and potentially allow them to get first-team minutes during the season either here or elsewhere.
In other Rangers news, “only the signature” missing as Beale closes in on another transfer.