Rangers academy chief Craig Mulholland believes a ‘one-club’ philosophy has the set-up on the road to becoming one of the top 15 academies in the world.
Following the appointment of Mark Warburton and Davie Weir to the first-team coaching staff last summer, a technical board was created ahead of the campaign to provide a pathway for future generations to progress through the ranks.
Warburton, Weir and Mulholland are joined on the panel by head of recruitment Frank McParland, goalkeeping coach Jim Stewart, director of finance Andrew Dickson and managing director Stewart Robertson.
Mulholland explains this group allows the club to make sure continuity is guaranteed throughout age groups right up to the first team, and that a transitional year is already beginning to feel confident Rangers are moving in the right direction.
He said: “It was a good season in terms of implementing the changes we wanted to make.
“I think the biggest thing for us was the creation of a one club philosophy, which is where we are in terms of cultures, playing style and in terms of succession plans for our younger age groups right through to the first-team.
“That was a massive thing for us and so much work has gone into that but it probably won’t benefit us for a few years to come but I think that will be a real benefit for the club moving forwards.
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“We have created a technical board, which is the manager, Davie Weir, Frank McParland, Jim Stewart, Andrew Dickson, Stewart Robertson and me.
“The purpose of that is to look at a philosophy for the whole club, so we review our KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and see how we’re doing in terms of our culture and playing style.
“We know every player probably from under 12 and where the gaps exist, that then forms a recruit and allows us to decide how best to develop those young players.
“The technical board meets on a quarterly basis and we have set targets and KPIs for this football club and we’re looking to see how we’re improving in each of those areas.
“We’re looking at being a modern and progressive football club and how we can get to the level of the top clubs who have a reputation for producing over years and years.”
Barrie McKay, the club’s Young Player of the Year, is living proof that talent can be nurtured from a young age at Murray Park, but Mulholland is keen to see more follow in his footsteps and make the grade.
“We had an end of season review with all our staff and looked at the targets we had set ourselves, some of which we met and are delighted about and other targets which we have not met,” he told the Rangers website.
“We need to say that’s fine and we expected that but why have we not met it and what can we do moving forward to improve upon it.
“It’s about improving on a daily basis and as long as we’re continually measuring what we do then we still have this ambition to become one of the Top 15 academies – I don’t know when we’ll get there but we’ll continually try and achieve that.”
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