The question has no definitive answer and cannot be quantified in black and white. There is, after all, no metric for potential, no surefire formula for success.

Cameron Campbell no longer has to solve the puzzle at Auchenhowie. He was invested in the people and the processes with Rangers but is now putting his time and energy into life in Leipzig after making the move to Germany in March. Campbell is looking to the future at the Red Bull Arena, but he has never forgotten where he has been or come from and the fortunes of those he worked with in Glasgow and Ghana, at the Right to Dream Academy, and in Denmark continue to interest him.

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Last summer, he was promoted from his role as Under-18s manager to PDP Talent Development Coach. In essence, he was tasked with working specifically with the most gifted and highest potential players within the youth system, acting as a bridge between the academy and the first team. That journey has been a notoriously difficult one for players to navigate for some time.

There has been a degree of trial and error, of innovation and failure. The outcomes derived from participation in the Lowland League didn’t meet the expectations and a push for a new Conference League setup didn’t get off the drawing board at Hampden. Last season, the side overseen by David McCallum participated in friendly fixtures and invitational tournaments, as well as competing in competitive domestic competitions.

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As ever in youth development, only time will tell if the investment has paid off and if the players will ultimately be good enough. Quite simply, Rangers need to see more talents not just progress through the ranks but to establish themselves at Ibrox. It is an ambition that Philippe Clement – given the football and financial benefits associated with such a success – holds as well as he looks at the here and now and the years to come.

The European Championship this summer will give Scottish supporters the clearest indication of where the current crop of players lies in terms of their ability and how they compare to their peers on the continent. Where the stars of tomorrow rank is just as important, if not more so. Across the board, are Scottish clubs doing enough to develop them?

“A lot of people I have spoken to since I have come here have asked me the same question,” Campbell tells the Rangers Review. “The important thing is that the top talent, the high potential players, is the same in so many countries. People ask me how the players at Rangers compare with Leipzig or other clubs and the response is the same. The best players at 15, 16, 17 are very similar. When I was at Rangers we went to international youth tournaments and we got to semis and finals and would win things. You would play Barcelona or PSG and sometimes you would win and sometimes you would lose. I think one of the biggest challenges that Scottish youth players have is opportunities.”

It was one of the innovations that Rangers implemented last season that resulted in Campbell leaving the club to take up a position as Talent Development Coach in Saxony. Keen to accelerate the progression of certain players within the academy system, Rangers forged partnerships with clubs to undertake training exchanges, allowing players the opportunity to challenge themselves in a new environment and culture.

Campbell points out that many academies across Europe are generic in terms of their structure. At Rangers, most of the coaches have only worked within the Scottish game and, as a result, they have similar methods and experiences. The same can be said of the squads themselves and it can be the case that players rarely interact with peers from different social or sporting backgrounds until they are at first team level. Rangers had to expand the knowledge base and the outlook.

Campbell and three players on the High Potential Player Programme travelled to Leipzig in November to work with the Under-19 squad and live the life of a talent in a top-five league. A change of routine – with earlier starts and later finishes to envelope schoolwork and training sessions – was an immediate point of consideration, as was the tempo at which drills were executed. The programme is not in place for Rangers to copy a model, but it allows players, coaches and decision-makers to take best practices and to share ideas.

“No country has got it perfect,” Campbell says. “Some countries, in terms of the culture of the league, it is easier and it is more accepting by fans and clubs to give opportunities to young players. I shared some research online a few weeks back about which leagues across Europe provide the most minutes to teenagers and historically leagues like Denmark, Holland and Spain do allow young players opportunities to go and progress. There is a lot of talent within Scotland.

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"I worked at Under-18s for four years and I can see it. It doesn’t matter what team you play against, every team has players that you think ‘They could have a really good career’. The challenge for every club is how you manage the transition from that player being a top academy player at 15, 16 to their pathway so they end up at 20, 21 as a first-team player.”

It comes down to chances, both given and taken. Jurgen Klopp is a prime example for Campbell given his willingness to promote and play younger talents. He picks out Lewis Miley at Newcastle United and Manchester United midfielder Kobbie Mainoo as evidence of what can be achieved when circumstances allow up-and-coming players to make their mark.

The season that has just finished has seen two exciting youngsters graduate and make the grade and hearten Scottish supporters. David Watson, the Kilmarnock midfielder, collected SFWA and PFA awards for his sterling efforts at Rugby Park, while Motherwell’s Lennon Miller received just as many plaudits even though he missed out on the prizes. At Ibrox, the rise of Ross McCausland was an unexpected but welcome bonus to take out of the campaign.

“There are lots of players like that in Scotland throughout the 18s league and it is about them demonstrating that they can add value,” Campbell says. “It is not that we are ahead or behind other countries, there are so many factors that go into it in terms of the culture of the league, the culture of the club, of the national association and the league structure. It is so variable and that is why it is so hard to predict. Identifying potential is still the hardest thing in the world to do because, for all the data and expertise we have, the potential is so hard and unpredictable to assess.

"It is more about the culture within the club, including the head coach, and what they see. At the same time, the right level of talent has to be there. You can have a head coach at a club who is desperate to play youth players, but the balance has to be there between quality and readiness on both sides.”

That is now Campbell’s task at Leipzig and his role within the academy setup sees him work with some of the finest talents in Germany. It represents another step into the unknown for Campbell but he has shown that he is not afraid to make bold moves to broaden his horizons or enhance his prospects. The approach from Leipzig came just weeks after returning home from the development trip and he recalls a ‘nice’ conversation that left him with a ‘horrible’ decision to make. The discussions over his methodologies and his ideas for the future had impressed the RB hierarchy, who embarked on their own fact-finding mission to discover more about Campbell’s qualities.

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A coaching career that started off with the Aberdeen Community Trust has taken Campbell to Ghana and Denmark, his stints with the famous Right to Dream Academy and at FC Nordsjælland the precursor to a move to Rangers. His promotion within the setup last season was proof of his methods and his man-management and the decision to leave, especially for a lifelong supporter of the club, was not made lightly. When it was weighed up, he knew he had to take the shot at glory in Germany and join a Red Bull organisation that has roots in Austria, the United States and South America.

“I am a big believer in the phrase ‘You don’t know what you don’t know’ and I think you have to expose yourself to as many different environments and cultures and people as you can,” Campbell says. “I learned early on that the best way for me to learn was to have mentors and people I could speak to and challenge their ideas and use them to challenge my own ideas and my own thinking. Working with Flemming Pederson and Frazer Robertson gave me an understanding of how much there is and how many different versions of football there are.

"Football is simple in many ways but there are so many ways to play it and there is no right or wrong way of doing it. But the detail involved in doing it successfully is incredible. If you stay in one place and you don’t get exposed to those things it is sometimes harder to learn. My ambition has always been to work with the highest level of player I can in terms of development and making them better and that doesn’t change with age or role or experience.”

That willingness to step out of a comfort zone has been with Campbell throughout his time in the game. Each move has asked questions of him personally and professionally but he is older, wiser and better for the lessons learned and mistakes made on his travels.

When he sits down with the Rangers Review to discuss his move abroad, he jokes that it was nice to hear a Scottish accent once again. Campbell is the only non-German speaker at Leipzig and he receives tutoring a couple of times a week to help him pick it up. The fact that he chose French at school is now a source of light-hearted regret, but football is a universal language.

He recalls a session early in his tenure when the squad – a vibrant mix of nationalities, cultures and dialects – were able to put the spoken barriers to one side once the ball was at their feet, aided by walk-throughs and video analysis. In many ways, Campbell lets his theories and his experiences do the talking and he is an example for his peers to follow.

“One thing I took from Ghana, and it is similar here to an extent, it is learning to be the minority or the outsider and walking into a room and being one or one of two or three people that are very different,” Campbell says. “In Ghana, it was obvious in terms of being white or Scottish. Here, everybody here speaks German so all the meetings we have are in German. I am slowly learning. I have a tutor and the club are working hard with me to increase my German skills.

“I am very conscious that I have decided to join a German club and I need to make sure that I fit in. When I speak to players about going out on loan or making that transition into the first team, it is about can you fit in to stand out in the correct way. The same applies to me. I don’t want to stand out for being Scottish or being new or not being able to speak German, I want to stand out for my quality or my experience or what I can bring in a positive way. For me to do that, first I need to fit in.”

Leipzig has – just like Africa and Scandinavia before it - now become home from home for Campbell. He is in a nation that produces players and coaches of the highest calibre and he points to how the likes of Klopp, David Wagner and Daniel Farke have achieved after making the move from Germany to England. His manager at the Red Bull Arena, Marco Rose, is another example of how a young coach can progress by broadening his scope and leaving home.

Campbell does not know where the game will take him next. Then again, he never has done.

“Football is very unpredictable,” Campbell adds. “In terms of a role, I have no plan of what role I would like to do next or aim towards. My ambition has always been the same and that is to work with the highest level of player I can. Whether that is the top talent across Europe at 16, 17, 18, whether that is first-team footballers, my passion is on the pitch as a coach.

"And my driver is to make sure I collect as much knowledge as possible and experience as possible so that if opportunities do arise down the line I can take advantage of them and demonstrate a quality to show that I belong and can add value. Being able to add value in any role you are in is huge and there is no difference between players and coaches in that regard.”