Vital Rangers reported on Juan Alegria’s loan move to Partick Thistle which will see him play for a side chasing promotion to the Premiership, the Jags currently nine points behind leaders Arbroath and Kilmarnock but with two and three games in hand on the pair leading the pack, it’s a great move for the youngster.
The Colombian youth cap was a long-term target for the club and has performed well since arriving from Finland, he might not be as prolific in front of goal as Tony Weston but he has a physique that should make adapting to a higher level of football easier, against Arbroath – on his debut – his link up and hold up play was key in helping his new team get back into the game.
Developing your own strikers is always one of the hardest jobs for a club, very rarely does a player emerge from the youth set up and go on to become a regular goalscorer, even in my lifetime, the best would have to be Robert Fleck with nobody else really coming close, Gary McSwegan had a good career but he was never going to be Rangers long-term number nine, especially with a certain Mr McCoist in his pomp.
Across the rest of Scotland, Kenny Miller, Duncan Ferguson, Kris Boyd, Steven Fletcher, Steven Naismith and – grudgingly – Leigh Griffiths, have all scored plenty of goals throughout their respective careers but the fact we haven’t seen a striker emerge from our own youth set up since 1983 and make a genuine contribution to the first-team, needs to be addressed, regardless of where they came from originally.
That Che Adams and Lyndon Dykes are currently the first picks for Scotland suggests that this is an issue across the country rather than just an isolated one, good goal scorers are hard to find and even harder to develop.
According to UEFA’s guidelines, as long as a player spends three years at a club between the ages of 15 and 21, then they are classed as home grown, Alegria doesn’t quite make the cut as his delayed move led to him arriving when he was 19-years old but Weston certainly fits this criteria having been just 16 when he signed for the academy, that he already had first-team experience under his belt at Blackpool shows his early promise.
Robbie Ure is another who is on the right tracks and has been scoring goals for both the B team and Under-19’s, at 17-years old and well over 6ft already, there is nothing stopping him from making it in the senior game if he continues to progress, despite his height, his ability with the ball at his feet and link up play are his biggest strengths, that, and he knows where the goal is.
With Fashion Sakala being preferred out wide and Cedric Itten not impressing since his return from the Bundesliga, there will be space for a third striker behind Alfredo Morelos and Kemar Roofe, it’s not easy persuading a new signing that their minutes will be limited so promoting from within should be considered.
All eyes will be on Alegria and how he adapts to the step up in levels, there might be more at stake than he realises.