Diversity of thought at Rangers' academy - Craig Mulholland interview

It's a cocoon in which promising embryos can flourish before they announce themselves to the world.

But announce themselves they must if they are to achieve their lofty aims, and with that enters complications.

Youth football, where the emphasis is on development, is a world away from the bloodthirsty, brutal world of elite football where grown men scrap and claw for their win bonuses every week. Add in dealing with a crowd that demands only the best and any young man looking to make the grade at Rangers has to get used to some pretty challenging circumstances right off the bat. It's a sudden jolt to the system for any kid making what are often tentative first steps. 

Mental toughness is a requisite and something that used to be built up in a way nobody would countenance today. The often no-holds-barred old-school coaching style was designed to make kids ready to deal with anything thrown their way. It was psychologically tough but the way mentors of the past prepared their young charges for life in the Ibrox bear pit.

So, given those practices are no longer in play, how do you prepare a talented kid for the pressures of performing in front of 50,000 passionate fans?

Head of academy Craig Mulholland admits it's a transition the club is still looking to perfect.

"There's a really, really fine line, that we struggle with, between some of the good values that were instilled in the old school way but then having a safe environment that lets people flourish and develop because sometimes you can go too far in the other direction.

"The reality from an HR perspective is that you couldn't go back to that now. You wouldn't want to but you actually couldn't. All that said, there were some core, strong values in there.

"If you wander around the academy every single one of them will shake your hand and say hello. One or two might not, but the expectation is that's the case. The under-11s are in Faro today and I was sent an email from the hotel manager saying how well they are conducting themselves whereas some really big clubs have sent kids who don't clean their dinner plates away and stuff like that. Those values are important."

That's not to say a touch of the gallus in youngsters doesn't have its place at Auchenhowie.

"Some of the kids coming from other countries are really confident in a way that we as very humble Scots might say is bordering on arrogant," he laughs. "Actually though, that's what's probably going to allow them to walk on to the Ibrox pitch and think 'I'm ready for this.'

"We had a young lad go away with Scotland and he was asked how he got on. He told us 'the team did well tonight'. Now we knew he'd scored two goals but he was so humble he was reluctant to tell us he was outstanding. Whereas one of the lads away with England was quick to tell us how well he played. It's finding that fine line. We need to grow that confidence."

Confidence is one thing, but not at the expense of character. For Mulholland, being a Ranger has to mean something - as both a player and a young man.

"You know that stereotype of footballers with tattoos down the arm, toilet bag under the arm, the big watch, the Mercedes car and eating in Nandos? We are not having that.

"That can't be what a young Rangers player is. Like it or not, we are a club that is a bit different and we can find a balance between developing our traditions and standards but be modern in our approach to allow that diversity of thought to let the academy flourish." 

And thinking differently is at the heart of what Rangers are trying to do with their talent conveyor belt. A shift from traditional coaches to something more akin to educators is clearly apparent. At the very least, the way information is being imparted seems to be a huge focus.

"If you look at academy coaches of the past it tended to be the hardest-working player with great values and that's what sent them into coaching in some form," he outlined. "Everyone in the building sits with those values but we now have a lot more diversity with people from Belgium and Qatar whereas in the past, a lot of our staff at one point came from the west of Scotland. How could we relate to the boy that comes from the cages of West London? How could we relate to the boy that comes from Colombia?

"This is not a Rangers thing. This is a UK thing. If you look at the amount of talent that fails because the culture isn't diverse enough to allow a different value set to flourish within their environment. The All Blacks have this famous thing where they say "no dickheads". If I'm a first-team manager, I get that 100 percent.

"We are bringing boys in here at age eight. If we can't shape and mould them into becoming good people by the time they are 19 then it's on us. What we have to accept at 16 or 17 is that there will be moments that don't sit with our value set or culture exactly as we want but that balances how much you can change them. For some, it doesn't work but for others, and there are some we took from the private academy market right now, they are miles away from what people would regard as elite professionals in terms of their professionalism and mindset but they can play. They have talent.

"Our job is not to go and teach them how to outplay like we might do with another kid, our job is to let them know what elite professionalism looks like. We need to be diverse enough in our own values to allow that to flourish and not revert back to what we were taught. That's hard because it's often our go-to, but that's what we are trying to do culturally." 

And make no mistake, Rangers' culture has been altered. Formerly staffed almost exclusively by Brits, there have been significant new hires that have helped shape the way the academy operates, not least Head of Coaching Zeb Jacobs, a highly-rated 28-year-old brought in from Antwerp.

When looking for the perfect hire to reshape the club's curriculum, Mulholland moved to tap into the network of former first-team coach Michael Beale. He was immediately taken by the innovative Belgian who beat off competition from Germany and Holland for the job.

"We did a lot of research into the modern game. If you look at the distances in teams now from where their backline is to where their frontline is, it's getting smaller and smaller. The distances you have to play in are getting really small. When we were doing our research as part of our football methodology group, we asked 'what is going to become the key characteristic for a Rangers player in the next ten years?'

"It's that ability to outplay. Because if you only have a small space, my ability to outplay you in a one vs one and escape from the pressure becomes, regardless of manager or formation, a key player behavior.

"That took Ross and I to Michael Beale. He found Pep Lijnders who is now assistant manager to Jurgen Klopp. He started with the under-16s. There's always a network out there of these kind of people in different countries who really focus on that. We went and met with guys from Germany and Holland as well as Zeb. Immediately when we met, he was a cultural fit for us. He fitted the strategy and did an unbelievable job at Antwerp.

"We didn't want Rangers to repeat the same pattern. We wanted to be brave, innovative and different. He has responsibility for developing all the coaches, the curriculum, our methodology and all the in-service work that goes behind that. He will chair our methodology groups so we are aware of the current trends.

"The biggest thing for me, and this is a key point, when Zeb first came we went to an away day and sat for a couple of days and I said 'you've now had the time with Scottish coaches, how does that compare with what happens in Belgium.' He said, 'you guys talk a lot about what you are teaching and you are ahead in terms of the tactical bits but we've sat for two days and we've hardly touched on how we are going to teach it.

READ MORE: Craig Mulholland salutes Rangers B’s ‘massively successful’ Lowland League spell 

"In Belgium, we'd spend the days looking at how we teach and how people are going to learn and not so much on what we are actually teaching. It was one of those eureka moments. What Zeb brings with his background is education. We are now looking at a lot of cognitive brain training. What that does for the Scottish coach is the planning of the session has to become much more detailed. It's not just about football, it's about how the young players learn the behavior.

"We are now finding quite a good balance with Zeb's appointment and he's been working very closely with Ceri Bowley who has come in. He's been working really closely with Dave Vos. There will be a group where Ceri, Dave, Ross Wilson, myself and David McCallum sit to make sure we have a really aligned methodology.

"The other bit that Zeb is big on at the moment is putting loads of barriers in the way as part of our strategy and curriculum. Often when you go to training they will be two men down, playing eight vs 10. The coach might give no decisions for them when they train that night, they might play them out of position or put two of them up an age group while they are kept down to test their leadership qualities. So we build into each of the players' journeys and the curriculum a whole load of really challenging, resilient roadblocks which means by the time they get there, they can actually shut all that out and deal with that. Can we replicate Ibrox fully? We can't but we need to get as close as we can." 

Of course, all of this is moot if youngsters have no pathway to the first team. This is an area Rangers have been found wanting in the past but there is now clear evidence of talent coming through and being given opportunities. This is an area where having a sporting director in Ross Wilson, makes a difference in linking different areas of the club. Alex Lowry, Leon King and Adam Devine stand as a testament to the work done, as well as the now-departed Everton full-back Nathan Patterson.

"Ross’s role, which he does superbly and which I support as best as possible, is to make sure the club's philosophy is aligned and we have a really clear strategy. When you see Nathan coming in that was part of our plan. We knew how that would play out, not in terms of the transfer - I would love to say we knew about that, but in terms of the opportunity.

"We knew that Nathan was coming through then Leon King becomes the next one. We knew the moment we saw Alex Lowry coming and Adam Devine coming. When we are recruiting at 16, we know the ones that are coming at eight years old. I'm really pleased when I look at the ones who made the first team recently, Robbie Ure, here at eight, Alex, here at eight, Leon, here at eight and the same for Adam. You've got all those but then you have a Zak Lovelace and a Paul Nsio who came in at 16, which is one of our key entry points, then you have a Charlie McCann who came in at B team level as part of our emerging talent entry point.

"These were not first-team signings. People get confused that academies are there to develop talent from the age of eight, that's nonsense. If you look at every club academy in Europe, they have key entry points. What we have is a recruitment piece going on and a development piece going on and the job is to say 'where are the best players?' and take them through for Rangers.

"With Brexit, we accept we will lose some down the road so we need to make sure we have ones coming in at the other side. It will change year on year. Last year we recruited a number, this year, with our 2007 group coming through I don't think we will have to recruit many at all because we have a really good development group coming. That will change year on year depending on the development group coming through. From our point of view, none of it is a surprise and it's all part of our strategy which is really clearly aligned.

"Other people sometimes think these are decisions made on the hoof. They are not, we have a three-year projection forward for our under-18 group and our B team group right now. We are really clear about what our recruitment gaps are and what we need to bring in. Ross relates that to the first team plan so we can make sure a Patterson gets that opportunity and as you are seeing with King at the moment.

"That joined-up approach at Rangers has never been there before in that sense. We won't get everything right, we get that, but as long as we continually go back to the principles of the strategy it means when there are moments of adversity, which happen at this club,  or moments of success, you don't panic or get too high or too low because you believe in the strategy."

And it's the demonstration of the plan that has helped when Mulholland sits down with prospective talents to convince them Rangers is the best place for their career. The attraction of such a large and historic club is obvious, but it no longer requires a bond of trust that youth will get a chance. 

"Parents get the history and tradition and excitement of Rangers, the bit we couldn't point to is a track record, because we didn't have one. So what we had to do was say that we acknowledged we didn't have that history and ask for a leap of faith with us.

"Now when we are doing it we had 10 academy players make appearances for the first team last season. This year already we have had seven. We now have five permanently in the first-team squad. They can see what happened with Nathan moving on, with Billy Gilmour, with Rory Wilson. So if you're a parent you can see the quality of talent isn't happening by chance now."

It's clear that Mulholland has absolute faith in those around him and the system they have developed but that's not to say they don't face external scrutiny. Rangers are expected to win at all levels and bad results, even at lower age levels can provoke withering reactions.

Understanding the club's inbuilt demand to win is important but myriad circumstances can shape individual games and there's no sense that the ups and downs of any given season is going to shake anyone's faith in the process.

Mulholland explained: "We have a trend that's happening just now. We are really relaxed about it in here but other people get jumpy. Our 10s, 11s, 12s and maybe 13s tend to go and win games really comfortably by high scorelines. We have the best players in the country, playing some really exciting football with this outplaying vision we have for Rangers with one vs one dominance, tricks and creativity.

"They then get to 14, 15 or 16 and we sometimes lose games heavily. Externally, people can get a bit concerned at that but actually once they get to 16 and 17s and they come through that growth spurt then that technical boy, who we have all the data for, sports science data, medical data, all the biomechanical data, their predicted height starts to bounce back.

"All of a sudden people think 'Oh, this is a great under-16 Rangers have got' but it always was. It just wasn't winning games at youth level. I speak to Dave about Ajax, Zeb coming from Belgium and Ceri coming from Manchester City and they find it alien this conversation still takes place in Scotland that the result of an under-14 or under-15 game matters because in their countries that is long gone. I watch our current under-16 group who are really exciting.

"They sometimes struggled at 14s and 15s and players got anxious, parents got anxious. If you look back on the 2003 group which contained Leon King, Alex Lowry and Adam Devine I watched them lose to Aberdeen by four or five goals to one. Everyone was saying 'we can't have this'.

"Our response was that we know what we are doing, we stick to the process and stick to the strategy and ultimately once Adam grows, once Alex fills out into his body then we get first team players out of that.

"I'm not sure there were any other first-team players came out of it. Who remembers we lost like that to Aberdeen? Nobody. There's a real education piece throughout this whole country and that's where we need to focus on what we are doing here at Rangers.

"The easiest thing we could do is go and take boys at under-14 who are physically strong and that team starts to win again but it's absolutely the wrong thing to do and repeats a pattern that's been unsuccessful in Scottish football for such a long time."