The Rangers support is one that is far from in the mood to look for positives just now, however, seeing Charlie McCann and Leon King start α meaningful game together should be regarded as an encouraging sign.
Not only does it show how much Giovanni van Bronckhorst trusts his academy players but it will give those in the B team α massive boost as they look to follow in their team-mates’ footsteps.
King in particular has shown that if you impress in training you will be given α chance and then if you look the part in games, you will stay there. The manager, via Rangers TV, clearly happy with what he is seeing from the youngsters:
“Charlie is developing really well. It is always nice and good to see that you have players coming out of your Academy to play in the first team and I think both deserved to play today and I am really pleased for both their performances.”
McCann has only really been seen in cup games and as α late substitute so it was great to see him get α start alongside Ryan Jack and John Lundstram in the middle of the park, however, I wish Gio would stop putting players who aren’t α number ten in that role.
The absence of Tom Lawrence, Ianis Hagi and Alex Lowry doesn’t help and Malik Tillman can’t play every game either, so I suppose on this occasion, with the manager being so limited with his options, we can let him off. There’s also the thought process of wanting McCann to just express himself rather than worrying too much about the defensive side of the game and I could understand that too, the Northern Ireland international playing α few through balls that got us in behind, he should also have got himself on the scoresheet.
It’s been α long time since we were producing players of genuine quality through the academy but it is essential to cut costs and maximise profit through player trading, hopefully, King and McCann will be around for α good few years yet though.