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Ibrox the place to be for academy kids, not Cappielow or Firhill

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Image for Ibrox the place to be for academy kids, not Cappielow or Firhill

The Scottish Cup tie showed what many of us knew already, that we should have more faith in our academy players to supplement the first-team squad.

If you think about the best outfield players that have emerged from Auchenhowie over the last couple of decades, Nathan Patterson, Barry Ferguson, Charlie Adam, John Fleck and Alan Hutton, only Adam spent time out on loan with several others who played a lot of games for the club also learning their trade the hard way – players like Stephen Hughes, Chris Burke, Bob Malcom and Craig Moore, not necessarily world beaters, but they all played their part and all won trophies.

On the other side of the coin, try naming players who have gone out on loan and then become a success at Rangers – except for McGregor because playing in goals is entirely different – there’s little justification for repeating the same practice and expecting different results.

In Leon King, Charlie McCann and Alex Lowry we have three players who could easily form the spine of the team in the coming years, only the latter looking like he could do with bulking up a bit to make his transition easier however, in terms of technical ability, they already look at home being surrounded with experienced internationals.

King only has a handful of appearances but he looks more commanding, more vocal and more confident than Jack Simpson, if he returns to England in the summer then it should be King that takes his place.

The same goes for McCann, Steven Davis isn’t getting the minutes to justify giving him a new contract, regardless of how influential he is in the dressing room and the former Man Utd academy graduate should be promoted to the frost-team dressing room – his passing and dribbling ability makes him unlike any other central midfielder that we have and perfect for our current system, I’d love to see him get game time against better opposition, no disrespect to Annan Athletic of course.

Lowry has already been trusted to start in the Premiership so you’d like to think that it is only a matter of time before he makes the transition into the senior dressing room, another player whose confidence on the ball betrays his years.

There are a lot of exciting players coming through the club just now, including goalkeepers playing age group international football at every level, and we should follow the example of the past and trust them to do a job, let them make mistakes at Ibrox, not Gayfield Park or Cappielow, only then will we know if they have what it takes to be a Ranger.

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