16 Jan 2018 17:07:56
Was speaking to a guy linked with the development squad today. Apparently the board want to mirror the Man City ethos of getting future 1st team lads out on loan early for good experience and ship those not up to the task for between £50/ 150k to lower league clubs.

All money made from this will go into developing the facilities and securing cross border young English guys who we can snap up on development fees and make a profit on.

This is to be a long term viable option and will certainly give the manager funds to add one or two quality additions each transfer window and maintain an effective model of first team standards, without the need for continual restructuring of the first team.

Also makes sense from a business sense and to attract investment.

Finally we seem to be moving in the right direction.

Keep the faith fellow Bears


1.) 16 Jan 2018
16 Jan 2018 18:17:13
No offence but you sold barrie mckay for 800k or something like that, how do you expect to sell an unknown player from your youth team that doesn't have the ability or potential to even make it in the rangers team for 150k? Man city can do it because the level required to make it in there first team is very high, again no offence but the level to make it in to the rangers team isnt


2.) 16 Jan 2018
16 Jan 2018 18:48:56
Sadly too many mistakes were made beforehand, McKay was sold for too little, 100% agree, as in the past we have been able to get players for less too, it’s the nature of it.

However there is a change afoot to rectify the past errors and the model will allow for players who are reaching a decent enough standard to be moved for fees within those figures quoted.

Plus allow Rangers to target those down south, who are restricted due to the vast sums being spent on players. We can give them a forum to use as a springboard into th championship or on those rare occasions to a premiership outfit.


3.) 16 Jan 2018
16 Jan 2018 18:57:58
it’s all relative rob doc i think comparing man city to rangers youths given the resource and ridiculous amounts of money they have is ridiculous quite frankly

steve clarke rates jordon jones at well over 1m and he’s been on loan at cambridge hartlepool and played at the mighty killie for 18months making 1 sub appearance for NI.

hardly setting the heather on fire wouldn't you agree

and just for the record makay cld easily have gone for over 1m but only had 6months left on his contract and refused to sign a new deal so rangers did what was best for the club moved him on and made as much as we could for a player who thought he was better than he actually was

moving on players from our youth who’ve only had a few 1st team games and been sold on ie hemmings / mccormack / fleck / burke who have all since done fairly well will work as clubs may look at their potential and think could this be another ferguson hutton mcgregor adam who all came through our youth established in first team and sold on for a decent fee


4.) 16 Jan 2018
16 Jan 2018 19:55:58
I have no doubt mckay could have went for more than he did and I'm a celtic supporter BUT that's a different kettle of fish. He was established in your first team for a few years. Trev, you mention Jones and a 1m fee for him as an example but all they're doing is inflating his value because they know there are clubs interested. Realistically, there is no one interested enough in an unknown player from your youth team to splash out 150k for them. 150k is peanuts down south which is why they can do it but it's a fair amount in the scottish leagues.


5.) 16 Jan 2018
16 Jan 2018 20:21:41
Most of the dealings where you see moved for an undesclosed fee are within those parameters.

You only have to look at Man City or Chelsea youth players who are moving for £50-£75-£100k with frequency to Belgium or Div1

We have seen in the past these players are not all they’re cracked up to be either, many have come to Scotland and failed.

Don’t believe the hype that because they’re over the border they are much better at that age.

Scotland is also a prime target to see if younger foreign imports can adapt to climate and culture etc. Plus the added bonus of easier to get a work permit.

More English clubs will lose decent acandemy players for a development fee over the next few years. Agents see the the old firm as a means to exposure for their clients.

It’ll happen


6.) 16 Jan 2018
16 Jan 2018 21:23:27
Rob_D - your right 150k is a lot of money in the Scottish leagues, so Killie should accept a fair bid, and possibly build in sell on fee, instead of doing the usual with the biggest team in Scotland and adding another '0' to the fee, just on the off chance. other choice is to give the lad a new contract based on his managers and Boyd's comments and treble his wages for 3 to 4 years!


7.) 17 Jan 2018
17 Jan 2018 08:46:43
Just because it's a lot of money doesn't mean they have to accept it, would rangers accept 150k for McCrorie? He's only went on loan to Ayr and Dumbarton and has played only 19 games for the first team. Don't worry you can build in a sell on fee!

Jones is one of Killie's most promising youngsters so they don't want to let him go for nothing.

bil72, I have been reasonable and respectful during this conversation and I feel that your "biggest team in scotland" statement is an attempt to rile me up. I would just point you towards the average attendances for this year, or the financial statements of both clubs, maybe even compare the trophy cabinets of both clubs in the last 10 years? Now, let the reasonable adults have a chat without you trying to turn this in to a "mines is bigger than yours" competition.


8.) 17 Jan 2018
17 Jan 2018 13:21:40
RobDoc21, to be fair Celtic Park has a bigger capacity than Ibrox so that kind of makes your average attendance statement void but I do take your point on the other 2.

The fact is that our club has been run so poorly from the board room to the manager since we went down to the old Divison 3. We should have been promoting youth at that point to build for the future with a squad full of home-grown talent which we could either sell on and make a tidy profit on or build a team around them, which in turn could only be good for the national side also.

ok Lewis Macleod came in and Barrie McKay played the majority of games in that first season before being loaned out (wrong decision) but there must have been more talent in that youth team that could have been better in the long run for our club instead of guys like Ian Black, Fran Sandaza etc.

We did not need to get the players we did to win those lower divisions, I would say a starting 11 made up of 5 youth team players and 6 others would have been much better than the garbage we ended up with.

We need to start using the youth system to promote within because let's get real for a minute. we have very little money to spend on players, that is why we are getting these guys in on loan with an option to buy. DK is waiting on the season ticket money to finance these deals as we physically can't right now. Now obviously I don't have access to Rangers' bank account so I can't say for sure but I would say it would be a safe bet to assume that is what is going on.