What’s the point in the B team?

I

ibroxpark

Active Member
I don’t understand the point in the B team - generally if we have an injured player we try and play someone from another position in that position.

Surely we should have the B team playing in an identical fashion to the 1st team and we just bring the players in who play in that position when we have an injury ?

If the players are not good enough to do this - get them binned

Guys like Leon King need to move on
 
Just view the Academy as a tax.

Its effectively table stakes to get into Europe anyway - so shutting it down isn’t an option.

View development/sales as a windfall.

Sadly, without some significant investment and a lot of luck - it’s never turning into a conveyor belt of talent.

On the upside, given the shambolic end to our season once more, we’ll get to see a batch of them in the final league game of the season in another glorified friendly at Tynecastle.
 
scobie1873 said:
If McCausland is the best prospect out of the academy, it’s not working.
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He was nowhere near and was set to be released at the end of the season, then Davis calls him up, Clement wants wingers and he’s managed to snag a new deal.

There is far better players in the academy, unfortunately we’ve not had managers who have the balls to play them on a regular basis.
 
I think if you look at Academies all over Britain the amount that get through to be successful 1st team players is very small. Ability is only a small part of it. Attitude and willing to learn moving through the 16-19 age seems to be very hard to achieve. Likes of Lennon Miller at Motherwell seem to be the exception instead of the rule. Sad because we would love nothing better than the spine of the Rangers team to be full of home grown players.
 
Cooper's left peg said:
The whole set up is not working and hasn't done for years.

We're kidding ourselves on with the whole "Academy" and "Development" thing.
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Sadly have to agree with this.

Who have we had coming though over the years who has made an impact with us or someone else or got us big money?

Barry Ferguson
Charlie Adam
Chris Burke
Alan Hutton
Danny Wilson
Nathan Patterson
Billy Gilmour

Anyone currently showing any real potential now at youth level is snapped up by English clubs.

As for Ross McCausland - he is a decent player - we had our best run this season when Clement was playing him regularly but as usual our fans will be on his back immediately as soon as form dips instead of encouraging a young player.
 
daven37 said:
Sadly have to agree with this.

Who have we had coming though over the years who has made an impact with us or someone else or got us big money?

Barry Ferguson
Charlie Adam
Chris Burke
Alan Hutton
Danny Wilson
Nathan Patterson
Billy Gilmour

Anyone currently showing any real potential now at youth level is snapped up by English clubs.

As for Ross McCausland - he is a decent player - we had our best run this season when Clement was playing him regularly but as usual our fans will be on his back immediately as soon as form dips instead of encouraging a young player.
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Exactly.

The outcome for anyone from our academy is generally:

a) they may get into the odd matchday squad. Might get a sub appearance in early rounds of League Cup if they are lucky

b) If they are genuinely really good they are getting snapped up by an English club
 
Would rather give them a chance as squad players for a season at least than paying big sign on fees to duds like Lundstram
 
There must be a middle ground though. We are constantly shelling out between 1 and 5 million on foreign players that take home 10k to 30k a week but completely over look Scottish talent that we could get in at a fraction of the price. Buying players from championship clubs or foreign leagues commanding big wages isn’t working for us, no heart and can’t stay injury free. We should be looking with Scotland to get a core of a team through the B team and first team. Some will get snapped up by Prem sides but has to be a better option than the dross we bring in through transfers!
 
Crouchy said:
Just view the Academy as a tax.

Its effectively table stakes to get into Europe anyway - so shutting it down isn’t an option.

View development/sales as a windfall.

Sadly, without some significant investment and a lot of luck - it’s never turning into a conveyor belt of talent.

On the upside, given the shambolic end to our season once more, we’ll get to see a batch of them in the final league game of the season in another glorified friendly at Tynecastle.
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Doubt it mate. That will more likely be used as a preparation game for the cup final.
 
I mean you could argue that our academy has been partly responsible for a lot more players than we give credit for.

The issue seems to be we release them too early, if everyone was fully fit then there would be up to maybe around 9 of the full international Scotland squad going to the Euros.
 
I know he's leaving in the summer anyway, but Stevens looked very capable in the youth cup final v Aberdeen and also didn't seem as slightly built as McAusland. Yet he's not had a sniff while we've let senior players stick the place out all season.

We've had all the talk about pathways and plans from Mullholland before he left, but like most things with the club it's all talk a no action as per usual.
 
Elgin is Blue said:
I think if you look at Academies all over Britain the amount that get through to be successful 1st team players is very small. Ability is only a small part of it. Attitude and willing to learn moving through the 16-19 age seems to be very hard to achieve. Likes of Lennon Miller at Motherwell seem to be the exception instead of the rule. Sad because we would love nothing better than the spine of the Rangers team to be full of home grown players.
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Man United have gone through a ridiculous number of years with always having an academy graduate in their match day squad. I know they’re hardly great just now, but nevertheless it’s something we should be aspiring to be. Having one player through every couple of years only needs a success rate of around 5%…
 
The issue is anyone half decent is snapped up at 15/16 before we see them. Gilmour, wilson etc. We cant change that becsuse down south they pay their youth players what we pay 1st team players
 
No sure the exact number but the B team can't have played more than 10-11 games this calendar year and I think 2 or 3 of them have been cup games the rest have been friendlies. Will never be ready for the Rangers first team with that schedule.

We won the youth cup recently unsure on what age group that is U19s ? The problem is the gap between that age and first team the development goes downhill.
 
RFCRyan said:
No sure the exact number but the B team can't have played more than 10-11 games this calendar year and I think 2 or 3 of them have been cup games the rest have been friendlies. Will never be ready for the Rangers first team with that schedule.

We won the youth cup recently unsure on what age group that is U19s ? The problem is the gap between that age and first team the development goes downhill.
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U18’s was the squad that won the youth cup.

Problem is the best player is Archie Stevens and he is wanting a move closer to home.
 
WarnbroTavernier said:
Clement has said it’s one of his objectives to promote from the B team. The problem is the players are average and can’t hold down a first XI spot
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Apart from Mccausland, he has given no one else an opportunity. He spoke about young Cole McKinnon then nothing. You could be correct, but unless these lads are given a chance? How will we know?
 
You ask a very important question op. Highly expect the B team to be used to punt an exceptional talent every five to ten years which isn't necessarily bad. It appears however its not providing potential first team options when injuries are very high.
 
Very occasionally we’ll have a player come through who is good enough (see Patterson). Apart from that, it provides cover in the case of an injury crisis and a horrendous transfer window (see McAusland). It’s as simple as that.
 
daven37 said:
Sadly have to agree with this.

Who have we had coming though over the years who has made an impact with us or someone else or got us big money?

Barry Ferguson
Charlie Adam
Chris Burke
Alan Hutton
Danny Wilson
Nathan Patterson
Billy Gilmour

Anyone currently showing any real potential now at youth level is snapped up by English clubs.

As for Ross McCausland - he is a decent player - we had our best run this season when Clement was playing him regularly but as usual our fans will be on his back immediately as soon as form dips instead of encouraging a young player.
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Fans can only comment on what they are watching.
And it's not been pretty has it?
 
Worth noting that in 2012 we had a fair few academy players knocking on the door and getting starts Fleck Wylde Ness McCabe off top of my head

I think we lost 2 entire age groups when demoted and had to put boys in when they weren't ready. Some did us a turn in the lower leagues but only Lewis Macleod was probably the best in that group. Despite many memories of the likes of Kevin Kyle and Sandaza, we threw a lot of youth players into the team in our move up the leagues

We then lost Charlie Telfer, Rory Wilson, Billy Gilmour before they got into team because of the state we were in

Next you would say Ross and Robby McRorie, Stephen Kelly, Nathan Patterson and now most recent is Lowry, McCausland

Some of those turned out okay and other faded away but it might have been a different story if we hadn't lost those 5 to 10 years
 
McCausland - a player who can at least come in and play in the SPL - is what we should be producing. Back up to save is money in the transfer windows.

Let's face it, a Barry Ferguson would be snapped up by English teams before he got near our first 11 nowadays.
 
McKinnon, Rice and Stevens should be getting game time. I would use Stevens before the likes of Wright every day of the week and twice on Saturdays.
 
Wordy_Rappinghood said:
McCausland - a player who can at least come in and play in the SPL - is what we should be producing. Back up to save is money in the transfer windows.

Let's face it, a Barry Ferguson would be snapped up by English teams before he got near our first 11 nowadays.
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Genuine question here- does he starts for hibs, hearts, Aberdeen, Kilmarnock etc?
 
Bluejays1972 said:
Apart from Mccausland, he has given no one else an opportunity. He spoke about young Cole McKinnon then nothing. You could be correct, but unless these lads are given a chance? How will we know?
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Put it this way, if there’s a Barry Ferguson at Auchenhowie he’s not going to spend all season training and playing friendlies against Airdrie and Dumbarton
 
Surely the lack of a reserve league must affect other clubs as well. What is the official reason for not having a proper reserve league?
 
Crouchy said:
Just view the Academy as a tax.

Its effectively table stakes to get into Europe anyway - so shutting it down isn’t an option.

View development/sales as a windfall.

Sadly, without some significant investment and a lot of luck - it’s never turning into a conveyor belt of talent.

On the upside, given the shambolic end to our season once more, we’ll get to see a batch of them in the final league game of the season in another glorified friendly at Tynecastle.
Click to expand...
Then we will see posts from the club on social media telling us how many academy players have made the first team.
 
Wordy_Rappinghood said:
McCausland - a player who can at least come in and play in the SPL - is what we should be producing. Back up to save is money in the transfer windows.

Let's face it, a Barry Ferguson would be snapped up by English teams before he got near our first 11 nowadays.
Click to expand...
McCausland wouldn’t get in many of the other SPL teams.
 
Deco1978 said:
Just seems a waste of time and money to me.
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It’s not an option if we want to play in Europe.

When frustration at results spill over we always see threads saying scrap the youth set up or the board need to throw millions into funding transfers. There are very strict rules around having an academy and how much you can spend on transfers.
 
Broxmeister said:
Surely the lack of a reserve league must affect other clubs as well. What is the official reason for not having a proper reserve league?
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Money. Teams moaned about needing bigger squads to have enough pros for a reserve team so it was binned.

Although, I can remember people slagging off the reserve league when we had it saying it was a pile of sh*te, senior players didn't put in any effort due to it being below them and the younger players just made up the numbers.
 
Uefa really need to allow smaller leagues to set up a cross border youth league. Some sort of Atlantic league would be better for developing players than playing Aberdeen again and again
 
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