A former coach of imminent Rangers signing Jake Hastie believes he will thrive under the pressure of playing at Ibrox, as reported by The Scottish Sun.
Motherwell winger Hastie is said to have signed a four-year deal at the club on a pre-contract basis, joining up with Steven Gerrard’s first-team squad at the end of the season.
The 20-year-old’s only made a real breakthrough at the Steelmen this season but has scored 7 goals in 14 appearances since a January emergence.
Now someone who helped him come through ‘Well’s academy, ex-Airdrie striker Andy Smith, reckons he has what it takes to make Rangers fans very happy indeed.
As quoted by The Scottish Sun, he said:
The good thing about Jake is that he has pace and he has that ability to go past people. He’s had that since I first saw him in Motherwell’s Academy, when he’d have been at under-15 level.
He comes from a really nice family and if the suggestion he’s going to Rangers is correct, I’m delighted for them.
No disrespect to Motherwell, but going and working under someone like Steven Gerrard is a great opportunity that no young player could turn down. The big challenge for him now is to go there and make an impression at a big club.
He’s going to be surrounded by better players and the demands are going to be greater. Young players can go to big clubs and get lost but you have to have confidence in yourself that you’ll go there and flourish.
But he loves football and I always think that sort of positive mindset can be a real help to a young player. I just don’t get the feeling that Jake will be fazed by going and playing in front of 50,000 people at Ibrox every other weekend.
Hastie is clearly one of the outstanding young talents in the Scottish Premiership and bringing that category of player to Ibrox has been a clear recruitment strategy Rangers have followed over the last few transfer windows.
Director of Football Mark Allen and manager Steven Gerrard clearly feel that the club’s best opportunity to grow and challenge Celtic is to sign young, hungry players who have experience of playing regularly in top-flight.
Hastie’s experience may be less than most, but his potential is huge and investing our time and money into that should hopefully pay off big.
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