RANGERS are set to tie down a number of their up-and-coming talents on contract extensions after youngster Aidan Wilson committed his future to the club this week.
The defender made two appearances for the Light Blues last term and has been rewarded with a new three-year Ibrox deal.
Now Head of Academy Craig Mulholland is keen to see more Auchenhowie kids follow in his footsteps and put pen-to-paper with the Gers.
He said: “Aidan is one of a few who we are talking to at the moment, and we got him over the line first. There will be a number of young players who will be signing new contracts over the next couple of weeks.
“When we started this project, we looked at changing a lot of the infrastructure and the environment around a lot of the players so that hopefully, two years down the line, as we are now, we start seeing some players hitting the first team.
“Last year, Aidan made his debut which we were delighted with – and it was a real pressure one for him against Aberdeen where he started and did exceptionally well.
“So he is the kind of young talent we want to try and get secured at the club for the next few years so that our future looks very positive.
“The challenge for these lads – and we had Aidan and Jamie Barjonas last year who did exceptionally well when they came into the first team – is when they come back down to the 20s, can they be as motivated and as stimulated in order to make the next step back up to the first team?
“Aidan has done that very well and has deservedly got a new contract.
“When you look also at Ross McCrorie who has now established himself, and Myles Beerman who played last year, we said it would take a couple of years to get the pathway starting to function – and I think we are now getting to that bit and we are really optimistic when you look at the look at the players we have in the Academy just now and the ones below that, the next 18 months to two years could be an exciting time for us.”
Wilson impressed when called upon last season as he was handed starts in the Premiership clashes with Aberdeen and St Johnstone.
The 18-year-old has yet to make his big breakthrough this term but Mulholland is confident his efforts will be rewarded with more first team action.
He told RangersTV: “Aidan has had a really interesting journey. Last year, he probably wasn’t the first choice centre-back, and he’ll say that by his own admission.
“All the athletes go through some form of struggle to get to where they want to get to, and if you were awarding a most improved player last year, Aidan was a real positive example to everyone in the Academy.
“The culture of the Academy has changed in that a number of the players are now staying behind until 5 or 6pm, and Aidan is one who never left this building before 6pm last year.
“He would sit with Graeme Murty and go through his clips, he would do work in the gym, he would work with the sports scientists, he would be working with the analysts and he would be working with the medical team, and everything he did was dedicated to him becoming a footballer.
“That positivity then rubs off on others. He’s clearly a strong athlete and an aggressive centre-back. He has a lot of good football attributes, but probably his biggest strength is the fact that he is a real positive example to every other player in here in terms of how we would want an elite young athlete to look.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here