Good Interview With Craig Mulholland

[jafrfc 614]

MARK WARBURTON might have been tasked with fixing Rangers but Craig Mulholland is the man he is relying on to hand him the tools to do it.

Maybe not this season or next, but in the years to come. Products of an Academy system he believes can become one of the top 10 in Europe.

A fanciful ambition? Not if you’re Mulholland. He has been at Ibrox since 2003 and gave up the chance to become the boss of arguably England’s best youth academy, Southampton, 18 months ago because he believed the Murray Park model could match it if the club fell into the right hands.

And now, with a new regime in the boardroom and Warburton in the manager’s office, Mulholland is convinced his decision to stay was the right one. He accepts, however, he will be judged only on the quality of player that emerges from the system - one that he has completely overhauled in less than nine months.

Mulholland was appointed Academy director at Murray Park in January - six months before Warburton’s arrival - and believes one of the signs of success will be if the youngsters he produces are good enough to prevent the new gaffer heading south to pluck loan signings from Arsenal and Spurs.

“We need to get better because the gaffer can go south and get Gideon Zelalem or Nathan Oduwa,” he said. “Our challenge in the Academy is to produce players better than that, so that he doesn’t have to look elsewhere.

“It’s also a challenge the players have to take up. Can they be better than these lads? We do loads of analysis with them and not only of their games - we look at the first team games. Our youth right backs will look at James Tavernier and they should be thinking ‘what do I have to do to play like him?’”

Mulholland oversees four Academy groups - the Children’s, Intermediate and Seniors as well as the Development Squad - and is delighted Warburton shares his views on how the game should be played and in how young players should be educated. And not only in relation to football.

“I was quite anxious when the new manager came in because we’d started a lot of work in the academy in terms of changing things, prior to the gaffer coming in,” he admitted.

“We got a lot of energy-sappers out the building. A lot of players who didn’t fit the model of what we wanted a Rangers player to be.

“We changed the playing style, ironically, to a 4-3-3. We were building from the back and were getting really creative players in the forward areas.

“I sat with the gaffer for 20 minutes when he came in - and he told me: ‘I don’t want energy-sappers about the place, I want to play 4-3-3 and be creative’.

“I sat there mentally ticking the boxes and thinking we are on the same wavelength. That was a huge relief.

“The football philosophy runs from the top to the bottom of the club. I’m not saying the Under 11s will play exactly the same way as the first team, but the principles, the behaviour, will be exactly the same so that when a player comes through and is ready for the first team, he is as developed as he possibly can be.”

Those principles include a ban on swearing at Murray Park - and the boys who are old enough to shave, have to do so before coming to training each day.

“Those are just wee things but they are important,” he said. “Our staff shouldn’t be dealing with disciplinary issues. They should be dealing with developing young people and treating them respectfully,

“Our coaches should be looking at technical, tactical, game-awareness - not dealing with discipline.

“The gaffer has been an academy director before, so that helps me. There is a buy-in, in terms of the football philosophy.

“At Rangers now, we have a set way of playing and a set culture. Hopefully, the gaffer will be here for a long time, but if he moves on eventually - if I move on eventually - the identikit of the individual who replaces us will fit the philosophy of the club.

“It shouldn’t be the other way round. The club can’t keep changing it’s philosophy to suit the style of a manager every time a new one comes in.”

He has travelled the world looking at Academy systems and wants his staff to do the same.

Mulholland explained: “When you visit top clubs, the minute you walk through the door you can feel it - it’s the environment, respect, education. For me, it’s about ensuring that every member of staff and every player in here buys into that culture.

"Sporting Lisbon’s is one that jumped out the page at me. They brought through the likes of Ronaldo and Nani, so I wanted a look at them.

“When I got offered the Academy Director’s job at Southampton 18 months ago, I spent a lot of time with them as I was looking at that and theirs is probably the best Academy in England.

“Look at what they’ve produced - Gareth Bale, Theo Walcott, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Luke Shaw, Adam Lallana.

“You look at them and realise it is not rocket science. They do things professionally and there is astonishing attention to detail. But every member of staff, every player and every parent buys into the same philosophy. That’s vital.

“There’s no reason we can’t bring that to Rangers. The aim for everyone in here is to get into the top 10 or 15 of top academies.

“People might think that’s fanciful after everything the club has been through. But I haven’t seen anything elsewhere that we can’t emulate.

“We’ve said to every member of staff in the Academy that we want them to go and look at a different club once every six months.

“We want best practice from everywhere, so we get better. Likewise, we want people knocking on our door asking how we do it.

“We won’t hide anything - we’ll show them our curriculums, our online systems, the analysis and training sessions we do with the players.

“We want to be market leaders.”

Mulholland has heard all the stories about Murray Park’s failure to produce enough players. He points out that 13 full internationals have been created in 13 years but isn’t one for looking back. His job is to create a future for footballers and interestingly, he accepts Rangers must do better than they have in the past.

“I don’t want to get into a debate about whether Murray Park has produced enough players,” he sighed. “But we NEED to produce better than we’ve produced.

“Has some of the criticism been unfair? Probably. But the bottom line is if we are going to become one of the top club academies we need to say to ourselves: ‘Can we do better?' I think we can.

“Rather than having to defend the place, the number of players coming through will eventually answer that question.”

[GOAT 30,449]

Just read it there, music to my ears. Exactly what should have been happened since it was built in 2001.

Still we really need a world class scouting system now. I always like using this example when talking about scouting. Lech Poznan bought a young Robert Lewandowski for 400k and look at him now. We can find these players with the right scouting.

[ZZed 4,510]

“At Rangers now, we have a set way of playing and a set culture. Hopefully, the gaffer will be here for a long time, but if he moves on eventually - if I move on eventually - the identikit of the individual who replaces us will fit the philosophy of the club.

“It shouldn’t be the other way round. The club can’t keep changing it’s philosophy to suit the style of a manager every time a new one comes in.”

This is the way the future should be, people move on but Rangers have their way of doing things and the people fit that instead of chop and change.

[kris1984 1,261]

Excellent stuff

[Inigo 32,534]

Sounds like a bright guy. Hugely positive stuff.

[allgers 735]

Good to hear the positive attitude from this man, no excuses lets do it, theirs something deeply satisfying about seeing a player come through that we as a club developed and nurtured. So Craig we await the results.

[Drunk and disorderly. 14,462]

Good interview. MP has been lagging behind for years and needed a footballing philosophy. A bit of footballing skill is not enough any more. We need young, hungry players with the right attitude who will focus on Rangers and nothing else. The days of eating crap, drinking and treating their time with us just another job should become history.

[the goal machine 7,803]

Good stuff

[scottyscott1963 18,329]

Jeezo!!!! how to rear kids the RANGERS way. When you look at the prospect of what we could achieve right here,right now. The news just keeps getting better by the day.

[dynamite 11]

I was at school with 'Mull' (VOLA represent!). I played in the team he captained, mostly as a sub, but I'm not going to claim he was some fitba visionary back then though.

What I will say is that his maturity stood out whilst surrounded by a bunch of 14-16 year old fannies who were just there for a kick-about. I was a complete noob when it came to actually kicking a ball on a field / blaze (preferred to play Kick Off 2 on the Amiga), but he saw that I was completely tactically inept and talked me through where to position, tracking players etc. Always appreciated that - now I get to appreciate that kind of thinking on a much larger scale.

[stuvah 146]

hard not to be impressed with what we are hearing coming out of auchenhowie, hopefully we will be training not only quality players but also quality coaches so as when mulholland even warburton eventually leave we will have our own guys there coached the right way (the Rangers way ) ready to step up and continue our new philosophy.

[jcb 1,167]

Breath of fresh air compared to the previous HOY, The fact that both he and Mark Warburton share the same philosophy and values is one that will see us finally progress into becoming a modern day football club both on and off the field.

Exciting times ahead so lets enjoy them.

[STEPPS BOY 73,934]

Brilliant interview from a very impressive individual..

[gazza27 15,283]

Superb interview

[Bears r us 30,798]

Very impressive stuff, we are heading in the right direction now that is for sure.

[plumbGER 24,518]

Craig seems to know exactly what he's doing and for him to be courted by Southampton shows the regard he is held in,Southampton place a big emphasis on youth development and its crucial to the funcionality of their club.

Ideally in a few years time we will see the benefits of having a guy like Craig at the helm.

[Don't b a stranger ... 8]

Boom - what an interview , said all the right things now let's make it happen !!!

[eskbankloyal 19,446]

Brilliant interview from a very impressive individual..

Meh, bring back Sinclair.....

[STEPPS BOY 73,934]

Meh, bring back Sinclair.....

4-5-1, hit the channels...

[MikeyM 39]

This should've been the attitude from the start.

[Darius72 411]

Great interview,absolutely passionate attitude from Craig Mulholland.Yes, passion-this is what I can almost literally see in his words.

[Malvern 11,329]

Players with discipline and good training from experienced coaching staff keeping themselves at the forefront of other academies programs to stay fresh. Who would have thought we would have two such individuals at our club this time last year? At least now we have a progression based vision.

Long may they both stay so that our first team progress and win and our youth shine as they should. What a partnership this could be in 5 years time (wishful thinking there maybe).

[pcbear 10,913]

I like him and his ideals.

[Elfideldo 4,408]

The change in the youth setup since Craig Mulholland and then Mark Warburton coming is has been fantastic. Not only is there a change in style for the better but there now actually seems to be a plan there wasn't there in recent years. The atmosphere among players and parents at all ages is much better with us going from a dated football philosophy to a more modern and attractive style.

Ironically now that we actually have some sort of plan, results at this level become less relevant. Players improve by playing at a higher level and where as we won't win the Development League, the game time 16 and 17 year olds are gaining will be a longer term benefit.

The idea of casting the net wider is great, but Academy football has changed so much that it is not that simple and would incur a cost that we don't have at the moment. We have around 20 youth scouts but unless things have changed we don't have any scouts in Perth, Dundee, Aberdeen or Inverness. So it is the central belt , one in Northern Ireland and I believe one in the Midlands that has resulted in signing Kane Hemmings, Jordan Hamill and most recently Jordan Gibson. I gather that the record of quite a few of the scouts leaves a lot to be desired, with few if any of their recommendations being signed by the club.

The commitment of travelling to Murray Park four/five times a week can have a big impact in both time and financially, especially if the alternative of Hearts/Hibs are on your doorstep. A look at the current Under 17's squad is a good indicator, of the 25 players I have listed on the blog 23 are from Ayrshire and West Central Scotland and only 2 from the East of Scotland. This really shows the commitment needed and shown previously by the McCrorie family and Ryan Hardie's family travelling many miles from South Ayrshire and Stranraer over the years.

One small point to make is the 13 internationals in 13 years quote is a bit misleading. The criticism has been of the previous regime, he had little or no input in the development of these players, most had already played for Rangers first team before he arrived. As yet none of the 20 so players he paid a development fee for will play international football or play in Rangers first team.

Thankfully those days are behind us and we can look forward to producing first team players and future Internationals.

[Blue Nosed Babe 20,695]

I am liking this.