Rangers surprise v Thistle amid preseason opener

If one thing stood out like a sore thumb yesterday, it was the stunning number of youth players for Rangers’ opening 22/23 match.

Of all 26 players in the squad to face Thistle, only 11 were not products of the Youth Academy.

Instead the remaining 15, whether current youth (Richie-Hossler) or rising talent (McCrorie and Lowry) all came from our own youth systems, and we can’t say we can ever remember that happening before even this early in preseason.

Of course, it’s technically meaningless such is the early stage of proceedings, but even this early, it’s a bit worrying how few senior Rangers players are actually either ready or available for selection.

Instead it’s all the kids, who, as we say, made up the majority of the squad yesterday.

Of course, some of them are very good indeed, with Lowry naturally the cream of the crop right now while McCrorie hopes this year is finally his chance with the first team.

But generally, let’s be honest – the majority were making up the numbers.

We know a bunch aren’t fit – Helander, Morelos and Hagi along, to an extent, with McGregor, while another group are away longer, Kamara, Aribo and Barisic among others.

So that does add a bit of context.

But the squad, at present, isn’t in especially good condition, and we wouldn’t read anything into any friendlies given we can only really select kids for them.

Hopefully in a week or two the squad will take a lot better shape than current.