Since part 1 was well received I am continuing with a look at youth players I have seen playing against Rangers over the years. As before I’ll name a few I thought were top prospects, some that were very good players, a few that I thought who may progress but didn’t, some I didn’t see the hype for and one or two that kinda slipped under the radar. As before all this is just my own opinions.
Dundee United:- Jim McLean’s Championship winning side back in 1983 was way before the talk of “Youth Academies”. Yet when you look at the twenty man squad from that season fifteen of them were at their first professional club.
Eamon Bannon cost £165,000 from Chelsea, Paul Hegarty was a £27,500 signing from Hamilton Accies, Gary McGinnis a free transfer from Celtic, Ian Britton and Iain Phillip were singed from Chelsea and Dundee respectively but I don’t know if there were any fees involved.
The “fifteen” included the likes of Richard Gough, Maurice Malpas, David Narey, Ralph Milne, Paul Sturrock and Davie Dodds as well as club stalwarts like John Clark, John Holt and Billy Kirkwood. This conveyor belt continued under McLean with the Raymond Stewart, Kevin Gallagher and Duncan Ferguson to name a few, having significant careers a wee bit later.
Coming back to the modern day academy years there are three players that would put above the other youth players.
First would be Ryan Gauld, he wasn’t tiny but was really slightly built and his jersey always seemed a bit too big but the kid could really play. I don’t know for sure but I would imagine Rangers won most of the games he played in but I always looked forward to seeing him. Became a bit of a trailblazer moving to Sporting Lisbon at the age of 19. For whatever reason he hasn’t quite progressed and at 24 now find himself with Farense in the Portuguese second division.
The next player I would highlight is John Souttar, a year younger and like Ryan Gauld a product of Brechin City Boys Club. An elegant footballing centre back who made his debut at 16 and was soon attracting interest from the English Premiership and in January 2013 he turned down a move to Sunderland who had a £600,000 offer accepted. A few injuries followed which appeared to stall his progression, but Dundee United must have been in dire financial state to accept a rumoured £100,000 for his transfer to Hearts in February 2016. My initial reaction was “why were we not in the picture at that price ?”. He has performed well for Hearts and has become a player that is attracting transfer talk again, despite twice suffering a ruptured achilles.
I never had his brother Harry quite at the same level, perhaps at 6′ 6″ he was never going to look as elegant on the pitch as his brother. Yet it was Harry who got the Premiership move, transferring to Stoke City in September 2018. Having changed his International allegiance to Australia he is in the unique position of have scored four goals in his two World Cup appearances. Two each in qualifiers against Nepal and Chinese Taipei.
The third player may surprise some, its Sporting Kansas City striker Johnny Russell. A player that scored regularly against Rangers and always gave us problems through the age groups. Following a successful period in the United first team he moved to Derby County for £750,000 in June 2013. Moved to the MLS two years ago and has gained fourteen Scotland caps.
I could have put quite a few in the second list so it is a bit edited. Stuart Armstrong was very good although I didn’t really see him as a Premiership player. Kieran Freeman and Ali Coote moved south early, Scott Allan maybe had a bit of an attitude even back then, Scott Fraser was talented. Two players I thought would have made more progress are Ryan Ferguson and Ryan McCord.
Never really seen the hype of keeper Marc McCallum who was rumoured to be subject of interest from Manchester City among others as a youngster.Ryan Dow was another although he has gone on to have a decent career in Scotland.
The under the radar player is maybe a wee bit unfair as he is very recent and I just don’t remember/know if I have seen him. It is Scott Banks who moved to Crystal Palace after one first team appearance.
Following a few quiet years Dundee United’s academy seems to be on the rise again. Rangers have targeted four Dundee United players in the last couple of years, three have chosen to remain where they are, and the other moved to Celtic. One of the players still at Dundee United, Chris Mochrie became Dundee United’s youngest ever first team player, taking the record from John Souttar.
Quite a long piece there, but I make no apologies for that as I have always been an admirer of the Dundee United youth setup over the years.
Falkirk:- A club much missed from the pro youth scene, I felt the beginning of the end came when they were kinda pushed into the Forth Valley experiment, which was pretty much dominated by Falkirk. I don’t know the ins and outs of the details but the instigation of Project Brave cut their funding. There was also rumours that the manager at the time wanted the academy budget for the first team. I am pretty sure there must be some regret from people at the club at the demise of what was a reasonably successful academy.
I can’t really think of anyone that I would put in that really top bracket, but there was a period where they were taking Rangers cast offs and making significant money from them. Transferring four former Rangers academy players for reported fees of over £2 million.
I can’t comment on Jay Fulton, I believe he was at Rangers at a young age but I don’t think I seen him play in a Rangers jersey. My knowledge of Botti Biabi is a bit limited too, I seen him a couple of times when he was on an extended trial. On the evidence of those games I did expect Rangers to sign him as he was a Sinky type, big, strong powerful striker. Both earned moves to Swansea City and had contrasting fortunes there. Fulton playing nineteen Premiership games while Biabi failed to progress and signed for Stenhousemuir this season.
The progress of the other two players didn’t surprise me as I was really disappointed when Rangers released them. Centre back Murray Wallace was offered a one year “schoolboy” contract at sixteen, apparently he was deemed “too skinny”, while Falkirk were offering him a three year deal. Falkirk actually paid Rangers a development fee and he broke into the first team at eighteen. Around his nineteenth birthday he was transferred to Huddersfield for a fee that would reach £700, 000 with add ons. Now at Millwall he has played over 100 games in the Championship and over 300 senior appearances overall.
Connor McGradles was a bit different in that he was a wee bit younger when he left Rangers. Again I was surprised as he was a player I really rated. He broke into the Falkirk first team just after his seventeenth birthday, and was transferred to Norwich City before his nineteenth birthday for a reported fee of £1 million. He suffered a double leg fracture when back on loan at Falkirk in February 2016. He has since moved to MK Dons where he has played regularly for the past three seasons.
Quite a few in the second category including our own Scott Arfield who I sure we were linked with back then. We were certainly linked with cuurent Livingston player Craig Sibbald on a regular basis. Add to that Tony Gallcher and Stephen Kingsley who moved to Liverpool and Swansea City respectively.
Going back a wee bit futher Lee Miller and Mark Kerr both have had decent careers. Two players who I thought may have made a move up from Falkirk are Kevin O’Hara and Kieran Duffie, but they are now at Alloa Athletic and Clyde respectively.
Hamilton Accies:- In my opinion Accies have a knack of producing really good teams rather than focusing on individual talents. Like other clubs of their size they also try to develop players discarded by bigger clubs.
Youth league winners the year before last I took in their Champions Youth League game against Basle and a few of that squad have made the first team breakthrough. In my opinion the pick are centre-back Jamie Hamilton who at eighteen still has a bit of physical development to come. And winger Lewis Smith who scored twice against Rangers this season.
They seemed to have a special player at a young age a few years ago in Aidan Laverty. A small slight player he played in the number 10 role and really caught the eye. At 13 he was going back and forward to Manchester United, when their interest waned he was one of SIX players Celtic paid Hamilton a development fee for from the same age group. Where other players were growing he wasn’t and he struggled for game time at Celtic, certainly against the better teams. I can only remember one late sub appearance against Rangers. I was surprised to see him in the Falkirk/Hearts select that took on Rangers in David Hagen’s benefit game. He played wide right, had grown a bit but was still slightly built although you could see he was a skilful player. He suffered an ACL injury in January 2019 and is working his way back to fitness now aged 20.
Ali Crawford, Danny Armstrong and Stephen Hendrie were all talented players. Crawford was around a while before moving to Doncaster Rovers and then on to Bolton Wanderers. Winger Armstrong moved to Wolverhampton Wanderers at seventeen but is now back in Scotland with Raith Rovers. A bosman deal took full-back Hendrie to West Ham where he went out on loan a couple of times before signing for Kilmarnock this season.
One that was lost to the game is Steffen Connelly a highly rated midfielder in the 2000 age group. He resisted Celtic’s approaches as five or six of his team mates made the move. He was culpable for a challenge that put Grant Nelson on the sidelines for well over a year. He was seventeen when he left Hamilton and appears to have given up the game. One of the players that made the move I thought had a chance was Kieran Campbell. He was a striker at Hamilton but played wide right at Celtic. To add a bit of confusion it appears Celtic had a defender player of the same name. I think the ex Hamilton player became Kieran P Campbell. Anyway he never progressed and I think he is now at Cumbernauld Colts.
There was a period when it seemed Celtic would buy few a Hamilton Accies academy players every year. A couple really surprised me and was quite pleased to see them spend money on them. Mark Hill a midfielder think he is still there, always looked to be carrying a few extra pounds. Size and physique gave him a bit of an advantage as a youngster. Goalkeeper Joshua Rae came to prominence when he was allegedly offered a trail by Atletico Madrid when he played for a local team when on holiday in Spain. Celtic followed the hype and paid a significant development fee for him as one of the Accies 2000 group. Celtic continued the hype when they gave a late sub appearance in a reserve game when he was 14, but they actually had two sub keepers on the bench for that game. Never seen the hype myself and he is now at Cowdenbeath.
The player I would have to say that came under the radar is our own Greg Docherty. I know I seen him play for Accies youth as I have both lineups for some older age group games. I must have seen him at younger age groups but can’t say he really stuck out.
They have a young player around 13/14 that has caught my eye but like many I seem to notice he is really small. Credit to Hamilton they actually play him up a year when it would be easy to leave him in his own age groups or play him down. I’ll watch his progress with interest.
If their is enough interest I’ll work on Part 3 next week, might be hindered a wee bit as the horse racing is back on Monday !!
Rangers Youths 
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