HEAD of Academy Craig Mulholland believes a ‘whole new challenge’ lies ahead for the B-Team as they begin preparations for the start of the Scottish Lowland League season.
With participation in the Lowland League, UEFA Youth League, SPFL Trust Cup and the Glasgow Cup all lined up for the 2021/22 campaign, it’s set to be an exciting season for the young Gers.
Mulholland sat down exclusively with RangersTV this week to discuss a number of topics, including the B-Team’s involvement in the Lowland League.
He said: “Playing first-team football against men and all the benefits that will bring is massive.
“It is not something that has happened overnight there has been a lot of work to get us to where we are but I think for the players and the staff it brings a whole new challenge this year that we are really excited about.
“From a profile perspective, we are hoping we will bring a good fan base and we want as many supporters to come and watch the young players as we can.
“I think a crowd will come and that should bring more revenue in terms of sponsorship, television deals and really create a first-team environment around the Lowland League.
“There's a lot of good work going on in the Lowland League and we spoke about their message of honouring the pyramid and that the ambitious clubs in the league get the opportunity to go into League football and we'll help them with their communications.”
“We want the Rangers players to be really humble, we'll visit some communities that Rangers haven't been to for many years and it is important that our young players are humble and they represent our club in the right way and set the standards you expect at Rangers.”
With a number of players still likely to head out on loan, Mulholland gave an insight into the B-Team squad.
He continued: “We call it our B-team but in essence there is probably a group above that before we get to the first-team. The lads that have been on loan to Championship level or Premiership level will continue to do that.
"We have a group round with the first-team at the moment and they will either stay with the first-team or they will actually move to loan opportunities at the higher level.
“I think that is really important for us because previously we had boys on loan in League One and League Two but we are now getting boys to Championship or Premiership level.
“The group that we will have in the Lowland League is more of an under-19 group, some of our best under-18's will play in it and some of our under 20's as well.”
FIXTURES: As the B-Team build-up to their first Scottish Lowland League match a full fixture list including pre-season fixtures can be found HERE.
We’ll have exclusive behind-the-scenes access to the Rangers Training Centre every day as Steven Gerrard’s side prepare to build on the fantastic success of last season.
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