Ian Cathro - Auchenhowie

[the gunslinger 3,366]

how about we advertise for the position and apoint someone with a proven track record.

 

infact just put eddie may in charge.

[elfideldo 406]

Worth a gamble, surely? I mean, he can hardly do worse than what we've managed in the last 20 years or so.

 

In my opinion its too important a decision to take a gamble. I would prefer to see it advertised and a quality short list drawn up and then a choice made

[barca72 440]

In my opinion its too important a decision to take a gamble. I would prefer to see it advertised and a quality short list drawn up and then a choice made

 

You are well into the youth football as previous posts have indicated. As a matter of interest, how many young players per season do you realistically expect should be coming through to the first team from Auchenhowie?

[andy steel 0]

In my opinion its too important a decision to take a gamble. I would prefer to see it advertised and a quality short list drawn up and then a choice made

 

Chance of that happening at Ibrox these days is pretty slim.

[amms 0]

We've not produced a player of exceptional quality since Barry Ferguson but our record of producing good players isn't too bad in the last decade or so. Burke, Hutton, Adam, McGregor, McCormack and Little have all gone on to be full internationals. Add McCabe, Fleck and Ness to that plus MacLoed, Aird and Crawford from the current side and I feel we are producing players and our record is better than our East End friends for example.

 

However I do feel we should have produced a few more 'outstanding' players by now. Might that be the fault of the senior coaches rather than the youth ones though?

[chilledbear 16]

In my opinion its too important a decision to take a gamble. I would prefer to see it advertised and a quality short list drawn up and then a choice made

 

Should be the way, perhaps they already have right enough.

 

Always wonder who makes the decision on something like this, what are THEIR qualifications and expertise on youth football etc.

 

Does it in the end come down to friendship, word of mouth and currying favours.

[der Berliner 3,245]

One question would be: do we have exceptional playing talent at Auchenhowie or within Scotland at the moment? You could always wish for better products, better scouting and coaching. Yet, if the raw stuff ain't about (for a time at least), what can you do?

 

There are a dozen answers to that, but you would have to look long and hard to find exceptional Scottish talent out there. And if it is out there, does (or did) it actually want to come to Rangers? As we've seen before (and see now), making a grade at Ibrox is quite a struggle (for various reasons) and it might be easier for young players looking for a professional career to use a smaller (local) club as springboard. And fair enough.

 

Sometimes you do get young folk with broad chests who are willing to see through the mill of Rangers youth and reserve team. And while the talent is there, they quickly go over the top and become too broad for their shoes. Fleck, Ness, Wilson, Cole and Kyle Hutton spring to mind. It is a complex matter and simple answers are hard to find.

 

And as we see now (again) in the other thread, the Rangers support is not easily satisfied.

[calscot 0]

I'm not sure which other clubs we're comparing Rangers to when analysing youth development. To be really fair, it would have to be in Scotland, and the quality of players produced that are counted should be of Rangers standard or above.

 

There are 42 clubs in the country developing players, so where in the league table do we stand? To be failures we'd have to be well down the league. But you just have to look at the Scotland team to see that we've more influence on the current squad than most. Some ex-Rangers players were bought rather than developed from youth but some wouldn't still be internationals if our senior management were incapable.

 

We have the advantage over other clubs in our resources, facilities, our attractiveness and catchment area size but have disadvantage of having to win every game with a sizeable budget, rather than struggling to get by and playing youths to save money. We will also be unattractive to many players who are more realistic and realise they have a better chance of breaking into the side if they join a smaller club - Ally himself was one of those.

 

We may not have produce a Barry Ferguson for a while, but the question remains, who has? I don't see Scotland as having much raw talent these days. Our kids are now fatter (32.5% of boys are overweight), more sedate and have less opportunity, inclination and indeed permission to play football. (When my nephew was at school they were not allowed to play football in the playground in case they were hurt and the parents sued.)

 

Due to our fairly unique position, the one closest comparison to gauge us would be Celtic, and I would say our recent record in this is better than theirs (but perhaps I forget about their players who choose to play for Ireland).

 

I think a lot of what talent you produce is down to luck of the draw from the talent pool, as long as they were reasonably well coached, and even scouting doesn't always help as the best players aren't always easy to spot at a young age. I've always thought the 'traditional' Rangers way of cherry picking the best talent in the country, including from our own supply, was how we achieved our excellence.

 

It seems some traditions are easier to ditch than others.

[RANGERRAB 3,258]

My own view is that Rangers would be better served if we had a feeder club in the lower leagues e.g. an Annan Athletic or an Elgin City. Not sure how we'd do that though(esp. with the dinosaurs who run the game in this country) but I think younger players would learn more there than playing in the likes of U20 leagues. It would also give McCoist & co a better idea of how good the youngsters really were in my opinion.

Just not convinced ploughing shedloads of resources into Auchenhowie is guaranteed to produce anything. It's a massive step up from youth levels to first team level. No one should under-estimate that

[Crimson Dynamo 128]

We've not produced a player of exceptional quality since Barry Ferguson but our record of producing good players isn't too bad in the last decade or so. Burke, Hutton, Adam, McGregor, McCormack and Little have all gone on to be full internationals. Add McCabe, Fleck and Ness to that plus MacLoed, Aird and Crawford from the current side and I feel we are producing players and our record is better than our East End friends for example.

 

However I do feel we should have produced a few more 'outstanding' players by now. Might that be the fault of the senior coaches rather than the youth ones though?

 

The problem with that list is that other than McGregor none of them really made it at Rangers - Hutton had half a good season and Burke seemed to be always on the cusp of something, McCabe, Fleck and Ness were used sparingly when we were at the top and could have been huge had they stayed for the journey back to the top but guess we'll never know.