With Rangers dramatic qualification for the last eight of the Europa League much of Rangers week has been filled with speculation surrounding Philippe Clement.
The silence has been far from golden with the manager set to face the music during his pre-match press conference for the trip to Tynecastle to face Hearts.
Thankfully, there has been some much needed respite in the shape of the Rangers’ Under-16 team who have travelled to Qatar to take part in the prestigious Alkass International Cup.
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Rangers off to a winning start in Alkass International Cup
As previous winners with Kai Kennedy scooping a player of the tournament award, the Ibrox outfit are regular guests for what is one of the toughest age group challenges around.
Rangers have Aspire Academy from Morocco and local side Mohamed VI Academy still to come with Seattle Sounders first up.
To give an idea of the how well respected the tournament is, Real Madrid and Paris Saint Germain are in the other half of the draw.
A combative and somewhat frantic first-half was turned on it’s head in the second when Steven Mundell made changes as Rangers manager, watching his side run out well-deserved 2-0 victors:
“Yeah, it was a very challenging game, I think the boys played very well, said the academy coach to the local host media.
“We had some challenges in the first-half with how we coped with the man to man pressure and building up through that.
“Fair play to Seattle Sounders in terms of their physicality and aggression, it was a real challenge but once the players started to get their heads round what they needed to do, play in the spaces between the lines and use the man to man pressure a wee bit against them.
“The game progressed we got a wee bit more control and started to create chances off the back of that and I think that as the game wore on we were always going to get chances and it was a case of whether we were going to be able to take them.”
Who are the academy stars to look out for?
In terms of names to look out for on Saturday against Aspire and on Monday against Mohamed VI, Kyle Glasgow and Max Cameron caused Seattle all sorts of problems.
Glasgow, wearing No.10, looked after the ball well and had a hand in both goals with the first being an inch perfect through ball.
Cameron, on as a sub, could have been on the scoresheet sooner with Seattle unable to deal with his lightening pace.
With a new set up in the academy, Glasgow and Cameron could well be making their first steps towards the first team against some of the best teams from around the world.
