Rangers manager Mark Warburton believes that Southampton deserve to be looked at closely for those aiming to improve the quality of young players in Scotland.

Scottish football is again in crisis at international level following the national team being thrashed 3-0 by Slovakia, something which has dampened hopes of being able to reach the 2018 World Cup; Scotland last reached a major finals in 1998.




Warburton does not feel the problem lies with Scotland boss Gordon Strachan, but instead is of the opinion the game north of the border is not right when it comes to developing players.

And Warburton feels that it is not the case that just the prestigious UEFA Youth League can help develop top notch talents, pointing to Southampton and how they manage to churn out future stars outside of the elite tournament.
 


The Rangers boss thinks Scottish youngsters must be exposed to tough challenges as they progress through the youth levels.

relatedNewsStory

He told a press conference: "If you look at the UEFA Youth League for example, which took over from the NextGen tournament, it's only open to the youth teams of the Champions League qualifiers.

"So I would look at someone like Southampton.

"[They have] a magnificent academy, [are] a magnificent club for bringing through young talent, but they haven't qualified for the UEFA Youth League.

"So Southampton are doing so many things right, with a fantastic record, but how do their young players get exposed to that level of tournament?

"We need to have them [Scottish youngsters] in games where they have to go to Rome and win 1-0, where they have to get a point at home to qualify, or they need to win by two to get through the qualifying group", Warburton continued.

"We've got to put boys in that situation, give them that type of challenge to prepare them.

"And it cannot be right that the first time a Scottish centre half comes up against a [Carlos] Tevez or a [Sergio] Aguero, [Luis] Suarez type is at international level.

"He should have experienced that at 16, 17, 19, right the way through the system.

"If we can do that, improve the quality of challenge, you get a better quality of product", the Rangers manager added.