Cole signs new deal

super hans · December 15, 2010

<P class=first>Recent debutant Darren Cole has signed a new deal and Rangers think even more like the full-back will follow if they can field a B team in lower leagues. The 18-year-old, who made his first-team breakthrough against Bursaspor in the Champions League, has signed a new contract until summer 2013.

Plans by the Scottish Premier League to restructure the game include playing colt sides in the lower leagues.

And Rangers reserve coach Tommy Wilson thinks Spain has shown it can work.

"I have just come back from Barcelona and spoke to the staff there about their Barca B team, who are third or fourth in the second division in Spain, or the league under La Liga," he said.

"But the thing that they've got right there, and I hope that we do here, is that they have flexibility - that a player from the colt team or the B team, whatever you call it, can go up and play in the first team and a first-team player can come down and play in the colt team.

"I hope that they don't put too many restrictions and regulations on it that restrict that happening."

Cole has joined striker Rory Loy and midfielders Kyle Hutton and Gregg Wylde in progressing from Rangers' Murray Park youth academy to the first-team this season.

Defender Danny Wilson, now at Liverpool, and forward John Fleck also came through in recent seasons and youth coach Wilson said "this is a vintage".

"I think, in a country as small as ours, it is always peaks and troughs," he said.

"I know that from my period when I was with the SFA and took the national youth teams. One year, you would have a really good crop and the next year was not quite as good."

Debt problems have forced Rangers to reduce the size of their squad and rely more heavily on youth, but Wilson thought Walter Smith deserved credit for giving young players a chance.

"I think the talent can only flourish if it is given the opportunity and fortunately we have a manager here who is prepared to do that," he said.

"It is great for us and great for the academy that young players are now getting an opportunity - and not just in the last 10 minutes of a home game when you are winning 4-0 but in meaningful fixtures.

"If players are blooded in the proper way and at the right times then Rangers can go from strength to strength and hopefully win the league this year."

Wilson admitted that there was added pressure on the academy to produce new players in the current economic climate.

"Danny Wilson moves from Rangers to Liverpool, which in some respects is disappointing for us and in other respects it brings in valuable income for the club," he said.

"There's not that many transfers in Scotland now where there is a fee paid.

"If we have five or six or seven players in our first-team squad then the saving per annum in wages for the club is significant, providing the boys are at the same level as the ones the club would have to buy in."

Cole, who has signed a two-and-a-half year contract extension, was told only hours before the game in Turkey that he would be playing, having been a late addition to the squad as cover for injury.

"We were as surprised as anyone else when Darren made his debut, although we knew how highly in regard the manager held him," said Wilson.

The reserve coach said that Rangers' academy taught its young players "to be hard working and to be humble and to enjoy the game".

On cue, Cole described his debut as "one of the best feelings that I have ever had in my life, stepping on the pitch, but I just need to keep it going.

"It was a massive surprise to me. If it wasn't for the lads keeping me going through the game, it would have been quite hard, but they helped me a lot."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/r/rangers/9291428.stm<BR clear=all>