IT was a case of buying the raw materials rather than the finished articles. For Cameron Campbell, that is where the challenge and excitement lies.

A Scottish Youth Cup final meeting with Celtic this evening will be another barometer by which the blueprint can be judged after a bold move from Rangers. Ultimately, though, only time will truly tell.

The decision to extensively recruit for the Under-18 squad last summer was not a short-term fix. Indeed, it had its roots during the times when Rangers were still in recovery mode on and off the park as Craig Mulholland, the head of academy, sought to address an issue that had seen them chasing their tails when it came to securing and retaining the best young talent in the country.

Kids who had been in the Auchenhowie system for several years came to the end of the road at Rangers and the net was cast far and wide. Bailey Rice and Lancelot Pollard arrived from Motherwell and Aberdeen respectively, while Connor Young was signed from Hibernian and Mason Munn made the move from Glentoran.

READ MORE: Who stays and who goes in Michael Beale's Rangers rebuild?

Zak Lovelace was perhaps the poster boy for the recruitment drive following his switch from Millwall but it was not just established systems that Rangers looked at as - alongside deals for Everton midfielder Cameron Bell and AFC Wimbledon's Archie Stevens - the likes of Souleyman Mandey and Paul Nsio were plucked from Pulse Academy and Lambeth Tigers respectively.

It was an approach that caught the eye and captured the imagination. An Old Firm fixture at Hampden won't define its success or the careers of those who dare to dream but the final will give supporters a glimpse into the potential future at Ibrox.

"I think there is never a one size fits all and if you look at the next group that is coming through at Under-18s, there are a lot of youth academy players that are going to come through from our Under-16s," Cameron Campbell, the Under-18 Lead Coach at Auchenhowie, said as Rangers attempt to retain the Scottish Cup that was won with victory over Hearts last term. "It has got to come down to the individuals, and the right individuals, and every single season that is going to be different.

"We hope that we get as many through from our youth academy as possible but if we can go and identify and source talented players from around Britain then it would be wrong not to do that and get them into our system as early as possible rather than waiting until the first team has to go and buy them for millions of pounds.

"This season for the coaching staff has been a really exciting challenge because we have recruited players from a host of different clubs across Britain and Northern Ireland. It has been great.

"You are trying to help mould and educate those players into a system that is brand new to them and they have got new team-mates. A lot of the time when you go from 10s, 12s, 14s, 16s, you are in the changing room with the same players and the changing rooms don't really change until you get to the first team.

READ MORE: The key Rangers issues James Bisgrove must address as Ibrox CEO

"Our changing room this year changed massively because of all the different experiences and cultures and the diversity that comes with that and it has been great managing that.

"There is definitely no right or wrong way, but the most important thing is that we believe we have got the most talented young players in the country that we will try and develop."

Victory over Celtic this evening would see the 18s finish the season strongly as a collective. The individual progress is even more important, though, and Campbell pinpoints the achievements of four players - Lovelace, Rice, Nsio and Stevens - are sources of encouragement at Auchenhowie.

On the August night that striker Robbie Ure marked his debut against Queen of the South with the opening goal of an Ibrox win, three of the burgeoning talents that had arrived in Glasgow just weeks previously were given their first taste of action thanks to boss Giovanni van Bronckhorst. In February, Michael Beale followed suit as Rice was given a run-out in the victory at Livingston.

That is the level that every member of Campbell's squad must aspire to reach and they would have been sold on the prospect of that pathway when they committed the next handful of their formative years to Rangers last summer. Every step is about preparing them for that giant leap and an Old Firm win would be a sign of the progress.

"It definitely gets more important as they get older, there is no getting away from that," Campbell said when asked about the requirement to win silverware at youth level. "Listen, every time you put on that Rangers shirt, no matter what age you are, there is an expectation that comes with the badge.

"We always tell the boys that expectation is a great word because it means that something is expected of you and that people believe in you. That is what we do with these players, we genuinely believe that they have got the talent to go and get the result and the performance that goes with it.

READ MORE: It's time for change at Rangers after Park, Wilson and Robertson exits

"If you look at winning, that can go down to winning your individual duels, winning your first contest, winning your technical battles. We try and place a lot of focus on winning all the time, whether that is in training or games, and then the result is the last thing that we speak about.

"We say if they get all the right results in terms of their processed outcomes then they will get the right result at the end of the day."

Rangers have won four fixtures - against Stirling Albion, Hibernian, Motherwell and Hamilton Academical - without conceding a goal on the road to Hampden. Now it is Celtic that stand between them and the silverware in a repeat of the 2019 final that was won 3-2 by a side that included Nathan Patterson and Kai Kennedy.

Like that night, there has been no public sale of tickets for the National Stadium and the only ones there to witness the final will be the family and friends of the respective academy squads. It is a move that seems counterproductive for the players and coaches but it will not take away the sense of achievement should Rangers get the result that they are confident of.

"The boys are all looking forward to it," Campbell said. "At the start of the season, we set targets both individually and as a team and the Scottish Cup final was definitely one of the targets that we set.

"It brings with it something that nothing else does in this country in terms of playing live on TV, playing at Hampden and also playing for a cup that is competitive. It is one of those occasions that everyone wants to be part of and hopefully we can go and make it a night to remember.

"I obviously can't comment on why fans are not allowed in but it would have been great to play in front of fans with the atmosphere. We played the semi-final at Ibrox and there were fans for both ourselves and Hamilton. It really does help to make the occasion.

"From our point of view, it also helps to get the players used to playing in those environments because we hope that as many of these players as possible are going to run onto that pitch at Ibrox when it is full at 50,000 as well. It is something that is part of their development and part of their journey, but unfortunately we can't control that."