Journalist Ben Wild has been discussing Rangers youngster Josh McPake following recent reports about his future.
A report from Football Insider claims that 19-year-old McPake, who spent last season on loan with Greenock Morton in the Scottish Championship and Harrogate Town in English League Two, is in line for a new contract at Ibrox, with the club looking to offer him a three-year deal.
But whilst his long-term future at the club might look to be secure, his short-term future is still another matter. Speaking on a live video for Football Insider (5:15), Wild felt that he isn’t ready for the Rangers first team just yet, and that it would be more than likely that the club would sign him to a new deal and then immediately send him out on loan for further development:
“It just makes sense. You’d think that this season, and it’s said so often about young players, is a big season for McPake because he’s now got that recognition, clubs are sniffing about.
“It wouldn’t surprise me if there was some sort of dual announcement that you sometimes see where it’s ‘he’s signed new contract, and we’ve agreed a loan deal for him’.
“Because, of course, when we talk about Rangers having a lot of options up front, they have a lot of versatile attackers and plenty of players on the wing. So you’d think maybe next season, not quite the time to bed in a new youngster, especially if there’s is that Championship interest, and you can guarantee he’s going to play a lot of football, because that’s a very decent standard to be learning at as a 19/20-year-old.”
TIF Thoughts on Ben Wild’s comments about Josh McPake at Rangers
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This does come across as the sensible approach for them to take, because whilst the club might need a strong, deep squad to compete on multiple fronts next season, winger is a position that they are well-stocked in.
And even if they were short, to make the jump from League Two to the Scottish Premiership, and a side with Rangers’ high standards after the work they’ve put in recently, would be a bit of a leap of faith. So to offer him a loan to a club somewhere in the middle for a season to continue his development and then re-assess things next summer is the best way to go about things.
And with a number of teams reportedly interested in him, they shouldn’t be short of offers to take him off their hands.
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