Rangers’ Head of Academy, Craig Mulholland, has opened up on the club’s development process, in an interview with RangersTV.
It’s been a fantastic season at Reserve and youth level in terms of silverware.
Graeme Murty’s side recently won the SPFL Reserve League.
Furthermore, the Scottish Youth Cup was clinched for the first time in five years, and the U17s ensured Rangers became the first British club to win the prestigious Alkass Cup, in Doha.
However, Mulholland insists that trophies aren’t the main focus.
“We don’t a place a lot of store by that,” said Mulholland, during a RangersTV interview.
“I think what we place a lot of store by, is the style that we’ve won them with. When you go and watch them (all the youth teams), you can see a really distinguished style of play. They build from the back, they pass through the thirds, we dominate the ball.
“There’s a real press in terms of determination to get the ball back, and that’s consistent throughout all our age groups…That’s been a long time in the making.
“The other thing with us is the age group players are playing at. Our big strategy is about player challenge. When you look at all the trophies we’ve won, 60% of the players have come from younger age groups.
“It’s easy to win trophies if you go full strength. We don’t do that. We’re about challenging younger players and the fact that they’ve actually been successful through that challenge, is a big plus for us in terms of our strategy.”
Analysis
It’s great to see such a concerted vision taking shape around the youth setup at Rangers.
We’ve celebrated the achievements of the development and age-group teams throughout the season. Yet, perhaps this ‘player challenge’ aspect is one that’s snuck under the radar.
It’s extremely impressive to think that so much success is coming when the majority of the youngsters are playing up beyond their age group.
The future looks extremely bright and perhaps we’ll see a few first-team debuts in the final fixture of the season, at Kilmarnock.
