Generally when it comes to Alex Lowry there are two camps amongst Rangers fans. One believes he is the next coming of Zidane whilst the other side believes he is nothing but a petulant child with all the talent but a horrendous attitude and will never “make it.”
With the nature of our team it’s an incredibly hard environment for young players to come through. As was famously said, at Rangers you put the club first and yourself second, that’s the only time second should be good enough for you. It’s a great way of encapsulating the absolute demand to win that courses through our club, especially in domestic fixtures. At some clubs it’s enough to try hard, leave everything on the pitch and narrowly miss out, at Rangers that’s called failure.
The last truly great player to make the breakthrough at Rangers was Barry Ferguson. Ferguson was placed in the first team squad in the 96/97 season and made his debut on the 10th of May 1997, in the last game of the season. Now Ferguson hasn’t been a great manager and he’s probably an even worse pundit but the pressure coming through at that time, with Rangers aiming for a record breaking 10th consecutive league title in the 97/98 season, is unparalleled. No Rangers player since has had that level of pressure and it’s incredibly unlikely any will in the future.
The last truly great player to come through the youth system, Barry Ferguson
Since then we’ve seen multiple “next big thing” players at Ibrox, perhaps the most highly rated player in that bracket is John Fleck. Roughly ten years after Ferguson shot onto the scene Fleck was called up to the first team squad for pre-season and managed to become the youngest player to appear for our first team since Derek Ferguson at the tender age of 15. As he stayed around the first team he managed a first competitive appearance in a January Scottish Cup game against East Sterlingshire before making a league debut in the final game of the 2008 season against Aberdeen.
Fleck had done what most youngsters dream of getting first team competitive action at a very young age. He was also earning rave reviews from pundits around the country and was even dubbed the “Scottish Wayne Rooney.” Unfortunately it seems the pressure and hype was too much for Fleck and in 2009 he was swiftly dropped from the first team, following a training ground bust up with Assistant Manager, Ally McCoist. Fleck did eventually work his way back into contention but then agreed a loan move to Blackpool in January 2012. Shortly after Rangers well documented financial troubles meant he was asked to TUPE as the club was sold to a new holding company. Fleck objected to this, thus making himself a free agent. After being released from his contract he joined Coventry City before joining Sheffield United.
Fast forward to present time and we are in a similar situation with starlet, Alex Lowry. Nobody doubts Lowry’ ability which is there for all to see. He is a very talented player, reads the game well, knows the club and appears to have a truly great future ahead of him but his attitude has been the subject of debate leading many to ask if he will ultimately squander the talent he possesses. It hasn’t helped temper rumours that successive managers have deemed him as a squad player at best or had him playing with the youth team at worst but are we jumping to conclusions too quickly?
Lowry vs Stirling Albion as he scored on his debut.
After scoring on his debut in January 2022 Lowry stayed with the first team squad and made further appearances as a substitute. There was huge expectation coming into the 22/23 season but that’s where things started to go wrong. Late back to training he was playing with the B-Team to build up his game time and started in a 7-0 demolition of Dumbarton. On a hatrick already, Lowry got the ball and drove towards goal only to be scythed down by Ally Love in a genuinely horrific challenge. Most times players can use the excuse they were “trying to get the ball” but even that wouldn’t wash here. The game was gone, he was nowhere near cleanly taking the ball and it was just a cynical lash out at a player that was clearly a level above.
Lowry on crutches and with a knee brace.
The injury put young Alex Lowry on crutches and he was suddenly facing a couple of months out but in a cruel twist this wasn’t even the worst part. As was widely reported Lowry’ Mum passed away leaving the youngster to deal with a lonely spell on the sidelines at the same time as a personal tragedy. This poor start to the season was a sign of things to come and despite a couple of brief cameo’s Lowry was barely seen in first team action.
At the same time as all this was happening rumours started about attitude problems. Many people have claimed his attitude isn’t good enough for a top flight team but it’s hard to imagine being his age and having to deal with the amount of upheaval he faced, especially in such a short period of time. I have it on good authority he is quite dismissive in person but that does not mean his application and desire in training isn’t good enough. It’s entirely possible people are taking his personality, his personal circumstances last season and adding two plus two to get five. He recently captained the B-Team and as someone said in our group chat he wouldn’t be made captain if Beale or the academy staff had any major concerns about his attitude.
As we go into the season Lowry finds himself at a cross roads. We bought in Cantwell in the winter window and Lammers in this window. We’ve also got Tom Lawrence coming back from long term injury. All three players are ahead of Lowry and play in his position meaning it’s unlikely he would get many minutes. Equally Lowry has progressed beyond the B-Team and whilst playing as Captain will give him experience it’s not going to further his playing abilities. Realistically Lowry needs to be playing games week in, week out to further himself as a player. In these cases Rangers have previously loaned players to lower league teams in either Scotland or England. Best case has been to send them to a SPFL relegation contender. None of this remotely prepares a player for the pressure and demands at Rangers.
On Friday news broke that Lowry was likely to secure a loan move to Hearts. This was swiftly followed by Hearts and Rangers announcing the move was secured, although Rangers retain an option to bring Lowry back if they wish. Nothing has been mentioned about any buy clause, despite some Hearts fans hoping there would be.
This represents a fantastic opportunity for Lowry, whilst also bringing benefits for Rangers. If he is going to make it at Rangers he should be capable of claiming a starting spot with Hearts, except when playing Rangers. It gives Lowry experience of of playing regularly whilst also having an expectation. Barring a massive shock Hearts should be challenging for best of the rest, whilst also playing in Europe. This is much closer to what he will face when trying to claim a place in the team next season, rather than playing with Partick Thistle in the middle of the Championship.
It’s also good for Rangers because he gets regular game time, whilst also (hopefully) inflicting defeat on other teams and hopefully taking some points off our rivals. One thing we’ve not been very good at recently is using the loan market for this double edged benefit, whilst our rivals have done so on multiple occasions. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come as we see new approaches in multiple areas of the club.
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