It is always a challenge readying young players for the Rangers first team.
The demands at Ibrox to always be challenging for leagues and cups means that it not an easy environment in which to bleed in youngsters with no experience of the mens’ game.
There have so often been academy players from Murray Park and then Auchenhowie with much expected of them who then struggle to meet the levels to consistently picked in the first team.
The most recent are the likes of Adam Devine, Alex Lowry and Leon King who are not getting a look in after previous spells in the team.
Manager Philippe Clement admits there is a big jump from the B team to the first-team.
Devine and Alex Lowry to be allowed to leave Rangers
It has already been reported that Alex Lowry will be allowed to leave Rangers after the club made a decision on his future.
The technically gifted midfielder hasn’t had a single run-out in Clement’s side this season and was nowhere to be seen when Gers B team won the Glasgow Cup with victory over Celtic.
Recruitment chief turned technical director Nils Koppen previously took a ‘laziness’ dig at Rangers some men, taken to be aimed at the likes of Lowry.
Rangers reportedly held off the likes of Newcastle United and Manchester City to tie Lowry down on a new contract in the summer of 2022.
But it looks like the club are now likely to let him go.
And he may not be the only one.
The Rangers Review is now reporting Devine is another who is being told he can leave.
The full-back had a run of games under Michael Beale but spent the second half of last season on loan at Motherwell and hasn’t featured this season.
King is another not getting games and it remains to be seen what the future holds for him after loan interest last summer.
What Clement has said about first-team/B team gap
Clement said: “There is still a gap to take. To be in the starting 11, I don’t speak about getting playing minutes or experiences, but really to be in the starting 11, I think the gap is still there, but it’s a logical thing. Also from Celtic, nobody is starting with the first-team.
“There is a big gap in between. We talked about that already a lot, about academies in Scotland and then expectations with being at Rangers and competing to get domestic titles, domestic cups and European football against top European teams. To close that gap, I think there need to be steps in between.
“In the club, we have had a lot of talks about that during this past year. In the SFA, people [are trying] to make things better to close down the gap [but] it’s something you cannot close down in one month. There need to be a lot of actions made for the future.”
