Michael Beale eager to give Rangers kids a chance as McCann shines for seniors | OneFootball

Michael Beale’s first act as Rangers manager was to promote Charlie McCann, Zak Lovelace and Adam Devine into the senior squad. Now, you’d be forgiven for thinking they were already there, but they were very much fringes – they were beginning to graduate, but Beale finalised it.

We aren’t going to be so dumb as to judge three kids who we’ve seen very little of in the first team at Rangers, and indeed it’s the job of the youth coaches and senior counterparts to know who has what it takes and who hasn’t.

And Michael Beale has an advantage over every past Rangers manager, even including the Great Walter, by becoming manager following four years of ‘practice’.

Beale saw the likes of Devine when he was here, he already knows these kids, and the boss is said to be a big proponent of youth, and giving them a chance. In fairness, our ex-boss was not awful for youth opportunities, giving Leon King, Adam Devine, McCann and others a decent amount of run outs, but Steven Gerrard was absolutely horrible for it.

Steven Gerrard had absolutely no interest in Rangers’ youth, only really giving a platform to Nathan Patterson, who still barely got a sniff under him. Aside the now Everton star? Gerrard was an epic fail for the Auchenhowie graduates.

But Beale has already sussed out that he wants to see the best of the youth being involved in senior stuff at Ibrox, as long as they make the grade.

Being honest, we weren’t terribly impressed by Devine – if we compare his display with the standout that was Patterson in the same position at about the same age, the latter knocked spots of our current charge. But Beale is the one who sees them all first hand, him, McCann and Lovelace. McCann has certainly stood out on his little cameos.

It’s good to see the kids being given a chance, and training with the big boys can only help them in their development.

There’s also Neil Banfield who, as new assistant at Ibrox alongside Beale (with a major youth background), extols the youth and says the boss is eager to give them a shot:

So there’s a pathway, and we’ll see how well the kids travel it.