Sir Alex Ferguson - Man Utd (mid / late 90's)

[Gazza08 0]

We (me included) go on about how we'd love to see more youngsters in the first team and it got me thinking to the time when SAF sold Hughes, Ince, Sharpe, Kanchelskis etc etc in order to pave the way for Beckham, Neville x 2, Butt and Scholes and mixed those kids with the likes of Bruce, Keane, Pallister, Schmeichel etc and went onto a phenomenal amount of success with a mixture of youth and experience.

Would this work at Ibrox? Would the fans want to see this kind of set-up? It means we would have a core first team of experienced players like McGregor, Carlos, Bougherra, Fergie, Thomson and maybe one or two others, along with the likes of Furman, Fleck, Effrem, Lennon, McMillan??

I think with the right manager, this could be the way ahead.....not sure who that manager would be though!!!! You'd need someone who knows how to manage younger players, something that Smith doesn't have the experience of (seeing as he doesn't play them!!) and someone that knows when the youngsters need a rest or shielded from the press etc.

Personally, i'd like to see a 22 man first team squad and 2 / 3 keepers taking it to 24 / 25, with at least 8 or 9 of these players being youngsters that featured regularly.

We might be able to produce a high standard of youngster at Murray Park, but the reason they don't fulfil their early promise is that they don't get exposure to playing in the first team. That's why the likes of Hibs and Motherwell get more from us for their young players when they sell them and they turn out to be better than what we produce through our youth system.

[Paintbox 0]

It SHOULD be the way ahead and it's a good model to follow but previous examples show that even our young Scottish players get a horrendous amount of abuse and don't get enough time to progress from many of the supporters.

Adam, Hutton, Ross, Malcolm and Burke have all been on the receiving end of torrents of abuse from the support even early in their Rangers career. I heard Burke being told to "GTF you'll never make it at Rangers you ****" from one idiot just a few minutes into his debut. Why would things be any different for the likes of Furman and Fleck? They would get maybe five matches and then be expected to be seasoned professionals.

It would make perfect sense to play something like Ferguson, Furman and Thomson as a midfield three against some SPL teams but Rangers managers seem to be so scared of losing that they aren't comfortably with giving youngsters a proper chance.

[J_RFC87 761]

I would love to see that. A nice blend of youth and experience. Unfortunately Walter thinks it should only be the latter!

[Gazza08 0]

It SHOULD be the way ahead and it's a good model to follow but previous examples show that even our young Scottish players get a horrendous amount of abuse and don't get enough time to progress from many of the supporters.

Adam, Hutton, Ross, Malcolm and Burke have all been on the receiving end of torrents of abuse from the support even early in their Rangers career. I heard Burke being told to "GTF you'll never make it at Rangers you ****" from one idiot just a few minutes into his debut. Why would things be any different for the likes of Furman and Fleck? They would get maybe five matches and then be expected to be seasoned professionals.

It would make perfect sense to play something like Ferguson, Furman and Thomson as a midfield three against some SPL teams but Rangers managers seem to be so scared of losing that they aren't comfortably with giving youngsters a proper chance.

And that's the compromise the Gers fans would need to accept. It would be a gamble because the younger players can sometimes take months if not years to find their feet.....ffs, it took Hutton about 3 years to find his!!!

I think domestically, a mixture of youth and experience would work....would we win the league? Who knows!!!

The likes of Ross, Malcolm, Burke and Adam were due their chance and the patience / support of the Rangers fans, but it was clear that they weren't of the standard we were looking for....that doesn't mean they should get booed though!!

In all fairness to the likes of Fleck, Furman and Effrem, i've seen enough of them to know that they have far more quality about them than the previous group of players that came through and given the current climate, i think the fans would be more tolerant with these kids.

[GrandSuckMaster 1,775]

Alex ferguson has only taken the risk of blooding a large group of youngsters at the same time once. Clearly it is very rare for a group of youngsters to come through together and it is also rare for all of them to have the winning mentality Fergie's boys had. It is unrealistic for Smith to take the risk of bringing in a group of youngsters when we need to win the title this year. I would love to see it happen, but the fact Rangers basically need to win every game in the eyes of us, the fans, will prevent this from ever happening.

[papaguy51 912]

Alex ferguson has only taken the risk of blooding a large group of youngsters at the same time once.

They were that good he's only had to do it once.

[Paintbox 0]

Alex ferguson has only taken the risk of blooding a large group of youngsters at the same time once. Clearly it is very rare for a group of youngsters to come through together and it is also rare for all of them to have the winning mentality Fergie's boys had. It is unrealistic for Smith to take the risk of bringing in a group of youngsters when we need to win the title this year. I would love to see it happen, but the fact Rangers basically need to win every game in the eyes of us, the fans, will prevent this from ever happening.

I think doing it that way is beyond us because there's always so much pressure on us to win the title but there's no reason that we can't bring, say, one top quality youngster through each season. Do it gradually and after a few years we could have a spine of a team built up from the Rangers youth players.