Any Lessons To Be Learned From Porto

[craig 5,199]

Think you are also missing mine

 

Given me a Rangers squad filled with 12 players from Holland and Germany, with a few Scandinavians thrown in for good measure. If we get these Europeans early enough, we could have half our squad from outwith these shores.....

 

Cammy F

 

Touche.

 

The point is though..... Porto have accessibility to these same Dutch, German and Scandinavian players - erstwhile they ALSO have accessibility to the south Americans which we dont.

 

I go back to your original point though - you ask if lessons can be learned from Porto - and their squad is made up of more South Americans than Europeans. The South Americans we simply can't get or have a much tougher time in doing so.

 

Unless of course you are talking in the bigger sense of learning i.e. off-field activity. If you are talking about on field then we are not talking of a level playing field as they get more nations to consider.

 

Or maybe you mean from other European footballing nations in general ? Porto is, as I say, made up of tons of South Americans, a bunch of Portuguese and that is about it. So given the South American issue we would next have to look at the Portuguese. Seems that the other major European footballing nations have a better process of developing their kids.

 

But if we are talking about learning from Porto then I don't see the relevance of Dutch, Germans, Scandinavian players as Porto have very few, if any, of those nations in their squad.

 

Perhaps I am being a bit simple though.

[pete 2,499]

That is what i have been preaching for a while now. we need a team who are continually looking and following professional clubs youth and reserve teams. In many Euro countries they can't offer prof contracts until 18. Scotland can do that at 15 or 16.(?) That is why Arsenal and Manu are stealing young players from all over Europe. That is where we should be looking.

[UCF2008 0]

One thing which came to my attention in a recent press article (funnily enough regarding a 'Gers target') was the rule regarding under 18's in Italian football. Apparently teams in Italy can't tie an under 18 to a contract. You would think that given the ties which Rangers have (especially through WS) that we would have been taking advantage of this loophole.

 

We might struggle to tempt the cream of South American talent to these shores, but Italy are after all reigning world champions. Just a thought

[UCF2008 0]

Ewan Chester claimed on RTV recently that Sergio Porrini was his best 'find' - that'll be Sergio Porrini that had won domestic championships and the CL before signing for us!!!

 

 

Says it all really