Shock statistic reveals how Rangers are failing young players

A shocking report by the SFA has concluded appalling standards in Scotland for youth players, after confirming some diabolical numbers.

The biggest thing the report revealed is that Rangers and Celtic gave a combined 115 minutes last season to players aged 21 and under in the first 33 games of the season, also before the Split.

Rangers, on the other hand, gave the kids just 26 minutes, which is absolutely diabolical and shows zero direction for young players.

That Celtic only offered 89 wasn’t much better, and for a club with a historically strong youth academy, it seems to have moved a lot of late.

Rangers have produced youth, but a desperately low amount, with only Barrie McKay and Lewis Macleod actually cracking the day in 2012. And that was without any options from former manager Ally McCoist.

Yes, we did see Nathan Patterson today, but he only got a total of 1500 minutes and 27 appearances. By far Auchenhowie Rangers’ biggest success since the days of Alan Hutton and Barry Ferguson, not to mention Allan McGregor.

But apart from him, and he’s long gone, Rangers have been endemically poor with youth, and their Old Firm rivals hardly any better. Ross McCausland is a brighter spot, but he hasn’t really broken through to become a mainstay, and he’s not our own youth product anyway.

The key question is what has gone wrong for such a shocking poverty of young players to come and be mainstays at Rangers or be sold for big money?

The SFA blame purely and solely the clubs in general for not relying enough on young players, and it should be noted that the lower Premier League clubs are the best at using young players.

Simply put, there is less pressure on the mid and lower reaches of the table and these clubs also have less money to buy expensive players. Basically they have to use their kids or they have no players.

But Rangers and Celtic have a lot more pressure, and the level of youth is not good enough, so if you combine the two, aren’t the kids good?

We’re struggling to remember the last Rangers youth where we saw real potential – the only one being Alex Lowry, and for a number of reasons he didn’t quite make it into the first team.

Apart from him? Very few have broken into the senior team, and this report only confirms Rangers’ reliance on signing players from other clubs.

Not a single Rangers player in the first team squad, apart from some token youngsters who rarely play, actually came from the youth academy.

What is the club doing to change that?