McCall: “I can’t use kids”

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McCall: “I can’t use kids”

New Rangers manager Stuart McCall
has doused hopes of any drastic use of youth by dismissing the idea of using a
lot of younger players any time soon.
Speaking about how his family and
friends are urging him to drop various players (who remained nameless) and pick
others (also nameless) McCall dropped the bombshell that despite the Newcastle
Five emerging as a sham deal, and the absolutely hideous performances of almost
all the senior players, he does not intend to deploy youth on a large scale.

“I can’t flood the team with youngsters.”
He said in advance of Sunday’s
clash with Hibernian in Edinburgh,
despite the rather obvious fact the best players this season, outwith Darren
McGregor, have been the youth products. Players like Macleod before his sale,
and current incumbents Tom Walsh and Andy Murdoch have held their heads high,
while Colin Stewart of the Rangers Development Fund proudly announced a
£150,000 injection into the youth program.
Meanwhile young Canadian stopper
Luca Gasparotto has been called up to the national senior side once again for a
couple of upcoming friendlies, along with a training camp.
In other words, Rangers have more
than enough promise in the youth ranks to justify a larger-scale use of those
players, with the potential for around 5 of them (Gasparotto, Sinnamon,
Murdoch, Walsh, and Gallagher) to outright start.
Yet McCall has now stated this
will not happen, dispelling any notion of trying something different rather
than the same old same old.
McCall further rubbed salt in the
wound by adding:
“The key thing for them (Hibs) was the
January transfer window when they managed to keep their best young player,
Scott Allan, while we had to sell Lewis Macleod, who was ours. On top of that,
they were able to add five players.”
So it seems not only a sly dig at
McCoist for rejecting the notion of Allan who begged Rangers to sign him, but a
paradoxial concession of the importance of quality young players. While not
playing them; a very odd stance in all honesty.
Rangers’ fans desperation for the
younger players to be given a significant chance is falling on deaf ears,
regardless of who the manager is.

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8 COMMENTS

  1. The mans been in charge for 2 games and already you've condemned him. And you base this verdict on one sentence. Why not quote what came immediately after your quote when McCall said "My job is to get the best formula — a winning formula. We’ve got time to do it and it’s what I’m striving to do", or even more revealing his comments later in the same piece "Next season, Rangers need young, hungry players. Of course, you need to balance it with experience". Clearly McCall will use youth if they are good enough, his selection of Murdoch and Walsh in his first 2 games in charge shows this but only a fool would fill the team with young players just for the sake of it.

    The season isn't over yet and despite being sh*te all season players like Boyd, Black, Miller, Shields and Law have already proven themselves to be quality at SPL level. McCall needs to get the best out of the experienced players at the same time as introducing youth. Contrary to your interpretation I think the interview you quote from proves that this is exactly what he intends to do.

    • Well said. Ibrox noise is king of the boo boys and changes his mind from one week to the next therefore making his opinions totally irrelevant

    • Donald totally agree m8 I coach a youth team & I keep telling them if u are fit in body u are fit in mind, as has been stressed often enough our players look far from fit & I think this has been the problem all season well actually since we were even in the third division as you correctly point out all our experienced players have cut the mustard in top division, something has went very wrong in the last three years & I think we all know the answer to that, is your garden in full bloom also

  2. Shouldn't be 5 at once though. Give one or two confidence, then if they do well add a third. Gradually let players find their feet before adding another.

    5 straight in gives us nowhere to turn if it doesn't work out. Although I would have gone with 5 in the bottom league, which we did. The big mistake was dropping them all in the old 2nd Division for experienced pros

  3. yeah but say he puts in 5 or so youngsters the same ones that are moaning to get them to play would soon moan at why hes playing them in the first place we dont do patience do we

  4. I remember an interview with Ruud Gullit,, he was asked why were the Dutch U21s so poor, yet the senior team was brilliant,, he replied that all the best under 21s are in the senior squad because they are good enough,,if your the better player,, they he should play. What we have in Scotland is this general clap trap nonsense of managers coming out and saying, "We have to protect the player",, whilst the rest of the world are playing their youngsters in abundance because they are good enough. Unfortunately, we need to stick with the players we have got, and Stuart McCall is correct that he has to get the best out of them and get a winning formula,, Hibs is a big must win today,, if he can win this one,, then i think all Rangers fans could start believing that we might just pull this one out of the bag,, but there is a long way to go,, if we do fail,,the I certainly would not put the blame on McCall, he inherited a stinking team from McCoist,,

  5. This young players racket is just fans 'throwing the baby out with the bathwater'. Trust McCall and give him a year. The media ganged up on Brendan Rodgers, ganged up Van Gaal… obviously a different scenario but let's avoid the knee jerk reactions. Spurs sold Gareth Bale for 80 million, flooded the team with new players and were garbage. This idea that you start all over needs to be cooled. Fans need to understand that McDowell and the Easdale farce dragged the players into a gutter.

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