Wallace, McKay and Oduwa

[pete 2,499]

McKay should absolutely be the priority because in one year's time the effort and money spent on Oduwa won't be worth anything, it will on McKay. It still really frustrates me that McKay doesn't have three years of regular first team action under his belt now, who knows what level he would be at now? All this time we have been watching Smith, Aird etc playing on the flanks who are pretty much incapable of actually beating anyone and putting in decent crosses while McKay has just been wasted .

 

If he wasn't ready then it may have knocked him backwards. It is easy to scream from the sidelines but we have no idea what his attitude was in those years. He wasn't all that popular either at Morton.

[T-1000 174]

Aye maybe, he's hardly a first pick though, is he? Can't say I watch many of their games (although I surprisingly found myself glued to the radio on Tuesday night...) but I get the impression Forrest's career has stalled and it would be no surprise if he's playing for Barnsely or Dundee Utd this time next year.

 

It might be I just simply struggle to give them credit for anything.

 

Forrest looked promising a couple of years ago but doesn't seem to have kicked on in his development. Liam Miller was another Celtic youngster who it was thought would be a big star; which I guess he is at Cork City. More generally, it is difficult to think of any recent players developed by either Rangers or Celtic who have gone on to be a success in the English Premiership.

[colinstein 294]

I think McKay is really relishing MW's style of play - he has looked a completely different player.

Oduwa, I like the look of as well....however, I think he needs to "calm down" a wee bit - he appears a bit too eager to be amazing/impressive every chance he gets. I do think the more game time he gets, he will be "calmer" & more comfortable as to when to turn on the style & when to keep it simple. The fact that he appears to have the ability to do both is a massive positive.

 

Oduwa was passing more on Tuesday night. It just wasn't the right type of early ball though. Maybe they're working on it.

[Darthter 542]

Oduwa was passing more on Tuesday night. It just wasn't the right type of early ball though. Maybe they're working on it.

 

Always felt it was Vlad Wiess' biggest problem - wanted to be amazing every time he got the ball.

 

Oduwa appears different though.....he looks like he will learn when to turn on the style & when to play the "boring" short pass etc.....he is definitely one to watch.

[craig 5,199]

Interesting observation, Craig.

 

I recently attended a Coaching seminar for kids football where Celtic Academy Director, Willie McNab was there. During a Q&A session at the end, one of the attendees asked Mr McNab if as Coaches, we should be building teams or individuals and the answer was that we are to build the player. "No point in having a good team at development age" was the answer.

 

That statement would basically confirm what I was hearing from inside the Rangers Academy. That said, a year or two past, we played Celtic in a set of youth games (they sometimes play 4 games in a day against each other at the younger age groups) and we beat them in all 4 games. Apparently it created such a stir at Celtic that on the Monday morning they had a "crisis meeting" - subsequent to this, in their desire to beat us at everything they started signing more physical, less flair-type players as they tried to overcome us physically - so even at the youth level it seems winning, sometimes, still means everything.

 

Meanwhile, RFC never veered from the Club's objectives and still see development as the real goal.

 

Spoke to four staff in the youth set up this week and they are absolutely bouncing off the walls with enthusiasm and excitement. The support from the top, the belief in the system and the desire to create not just good players but good people was inspiring. I think we're in great hands and the future looks - as much as you can ever say, anyway - bright.

 

This excitement and enthusiasm started when Craig Mulholland got the job as Academy Director. Every single Academy coach that I have spoken to admire and respect Craig and also completely believe in his methods and progressive-thinking. It just so happens that Craig Mulholland's philosophy on football is similar to that of Mark Warburton. The coaches are incredibly excited to be working with both.

 

As I said, previously, a year or two ago Craig Mulholland was head-hunted by a very, very successful youth Academy in the English Premiership - his heart, though, has always been with Rangers - as far as I am led to believe, he turned down a MASSIVE Pay increase to remain with Rangers.

 

I think that we are in very safe hands at the Academy level with Craig Mulholland running the show - it was, for me, a very significant move by the new Board - one which I am very hopeful will result in the Academy producing more 1st team players than before.

 

Apart from PLG, I'm not sure if we have had anyone at the club interested in playing football since Advocaat left and Warburton joined. Perhaps Craig Mulholland is the exception, as he seems to have some pretty progressive, modern ideas from the limited knowledge I have of him.

 

Certainly at the youth level Sinclair didn't seem to prescribe to "total football" once players got to a certain age - the younger Academy teams weren't really his remit so the coaches were allowed to have more autonomy and most of them want their teams playing it on the deck (I watched a couple of U11 teams last year absolutely destroy Dundee Utd 8-0 in one game and 11-0 in another - Utd could barely get a touch of the ball - so you know that the younger boys were being encouraged to play football).

 

Where I think some of the issue MIGHT have been is at the older Academy age groups (from, say, U15 up). It looks to me (with no inside information) that there was more of an emphasis on winning rather than development. Sadly I think this hindered some boys because, as we know, in Scotland physicality often overtakes technical ability. I think we maybe lost sight of what we should have been doing which is developing the player into a 1st team member. Physical development is EASY - but if you haven't learned how to be technical or tactical by 13 or 14 yrs old you may as well not bother. Seems we lost sight of the development aspect under Sinclair.

 

Mulholland breathed a new lease of life into the Club. I like Craig, he is a really nice guy and he is very fair, balanced and kind to the kids from what I hear too.

 

It also doesn't hinder things at Academy level when Mark Warburton is attending games and/or training sessions - it certainly motivates players to perform and apply themselves when the 1st team manager is in attendance.

[Bearman 9]

Interesting observation, Craig.

 

I recently attended a Coaching seminar for kids football where Celtic Academy Director, Willie McNab was there. During a Q&A session at the end, one of the attendees asked Mr McNab if as Coaches, we should be building teams or individuals and the answer was that we are to build the player. "No point in having a good team at development age" was the answer.

 

Considering Rangers are Scotland's most successful club and have the better head to head against them, maybe he has a point.

[the gunslinger 3,366]

Warburton and weir recently forced the youths to start playing Dylan dykes as he's a player they like.

[barca72 440]

Aye maybe, he's hardly a first pick though, is he? Can't say I watch many of their games (although I surprisingly found myself glued to the radio on Tuesday night...) but I get the impression Forrest's career has stalled and it would be no surprise if he's playing for Barnsely or Dundee Utd this time next year.

 

It might be I just simply struggle to give them credit for anything.

 

The only reason I threw him in the mix was because I watched their game the other night and he and Gordon were the only two players that they had that were worthy of the CL stage.

He was pacy, direct and lively. I can't say that he does that consistently.

[Ser Barristan Selmy 222]

Whilst I take your point McKay has been playing first team football for the last couple of years, just not for us. He was at Morton who were a division higher than us at the time and the Raith Rovers who were in the same league as us. Ironically being away on loan might have been the best thing for him although I doubt very much that was a deliberate strategy.

McKay played 43 times in the last two seasons for Greenock Morton and Raith, with only 32 of those being starts. To put things into consideration, Lee McCulloch played 86 times for us during that spell.