Youth development is never linear, it is never black and white, if it was then Rangers wouldn’t struggle to bring players like Leon King into the first-team and keep them there.
Trust is a big issue, look at the likes of Nathan Patterson and Alex Lowry, they were only really given a chance due to injuries but had to prove that they deserved to stay.
Making it at Rangers is never easy but few youngsters go from making the sort of breakthrough Leon King did to almost being the club’s forgotten man.
Rangers need to find new pathway for Leon King
In the summer, the 19-year old was part of a quartet that featured Connor Goldson, Ben Davies and John Souttar with the departure of Filip Helander expected to see King become a more regular fixture in matchday squads.
Giovanni van Bronckhorst had already shown that he trusted King after Steven Gerrard gave him his debut at just 16 but the pressure put on the young defender was immense.
No teenager played more Champions League group stage minutes than Rangers got out of Leon King, what didn’t help is that he played most of them alongside James Sands rather than an experienced stopper like Connor Goldson who could talk him through games.
With 26 appearances in total, it was a solid start to his Rangers career.
The quality of his passing was impressive, as was his composure, but there were clear issues with his physicality and occasional positional lapses too – but, again, he was only 18.
This season hasn’t gone to plan though with zero minutes all season.
Why Rangers aren’t getting the best out of Leon King
Leon Balogun was signed with the rationale being that King suffered what looked like a long-term injury in pre-season training.
Balogun was seen on RTV videos before King got injured, the plans were clearly already in place to sign him, it was a decision by Michael Beale that must’ve been a kick in the stomach for the youngster.
In fairness to the big Nigerian, he has been top class when he has been called upon but you can’t help but think that all his signing has done is take minutes off King.
Would Rangers have beaten Dundee, Livingston and Morton with Leon King instead of Leon Balogon?
You’d like to think so, Hearts at Hampden might have been a tougher test but even then, Ben Davis was available too.
Rangers and Leon King have to make a decision about his short-term future at Ibrox.
He is still ridiculously young for his position and has plenty of time on his side but he needs to be playing senior games.
Rangers can’t be selfish and keep him at the club purely because they have been negligent and not recruited any senior home-grown players that are eligible for European squads.
Four senior centre-halves is enough, and Johnly Yfeko has shown that he can also be trusted if needs be, in January, he will also be able to be selected on the B list for UEFA’s squad lists so, if we do progress in the Europa League, he can be added.
King is a better player than Lewis Mayo and Kilmarnock gave him plenty of minutes again, like Lowry, he has to go out on loan with a view to making him better for when he comes back.
Philippe Clement has said that he will give youth a chance in his Rangers squad but, in Leon King’s case, he has to prove elsewhere that he is good enough first.
