Robbie Ure broke into Rangers’ first team at 18, marking his debut with a goal in a League Cup tie against Queen of the South in August 2022.
That season brought only two further outings: a single minute off the bench in the Premiership against St Mirren in November and another one-minute cameo against Hibs in May.
For a teenager desperate to play, those scraps weren’t enough. Even as Rangers struggled, his pathway looked blocked.
In Ure’s position, Rangers invested heavily—about £6m on Danilo (roughly £10m including wages to date) and £3.5m on Sam Lammers (north of £4m with salary). With first-team chances scarce at Ibrox, Ure moved on to Anderlecht and then to IK Sirius in Sweden.
At Sirius, he has blossomed. Now 22, he’s on a hot streak of 15 goals in 15 matches, with 10 coming in his last six. Reports on Sunday indicated Sevilla are keen to sign him for close to £8m.
On the same day that Rangers lost 2-1 at home to Hibs, news that a former academy prospect they let leave for nothing could command a multi-million fee from one of Spain’s biggest clubs won’t have improved the mood.
If that transfer happens, it will quietly bolster the Scottish FA’s case ahead of next month’s “critically important” summit with senior club owners and CEOs in St Andrews.
Branded “Made In Scotland?”, the session—fronted by SFA chief executive Ian Maxwell and chief football officer Craig Mulholland—amounts to an appeal to clubs, particularly in the Premiership, to strengthen pathways and give young Scottish players more opportunities.
Diplomacy will likely prevent them from namechecking Ure, but his story underlines the point: backing youth might have saved Rangers significant outlay and, in time, earned them a sizeable fee.
It isn’t always that simple, of course. Ure may not have shown then what he’s showing now, and hindsight is at play. Celtic had their own sting with Ben Doak, now Gannon-Doak, who saw little action before heading to England—another potential multi-million talent who slipped away.
Early-season numbers underline the need for the summit. Over the first two Premiership rounds, only 31% of players used were Scottish, and just 5% were Scots aged 21 or under. Forty-six nationalities featured.
Some cases stand out starkly: Dundee United, for instance, have fielded only one Scottish player—Dylan Tait—across their first two games.
Ask chairmen, chief executives and managers if they value homegrown talent and you’ll hear a resounding yes—followed by a long list of reasons why many don’t actually play them, some valid and others less so.
There are nuances. Dundee United point to their academy investment and to 16-year-old Kai Hutchison being lured to Everton—one of many young Scots heading south in the post-Brexit landscape.
Celtic can cite Dara Jikiemi (Liverpool) and Daniel Cummings (West Ham). Rangers can point to Cameron Scott (Burnley) and Chris Eadie (Sheffield United). Hearts have lost Boyd Fraser (Nottingham Forest) and Keir McMeekin (Manchester City). Hibs mention Ben Vickery (Manchester City) and Josh Landers (West Ham).
Those are just a few of many departures. Higher wages matter, certainly, but pinning it all on money is too convenient. Lack of opportunity is a major factor.
Players—and their parents—don’t see a clear route to first-team football in Scotland.
The country’s biggest clubs have few recent poster boys who came through their academies and then played regularly. Too often pathways are blocked by short-term signings from abroad with questionable track records. What message does that send to a talented teenager? Stay and stall, or leave and take a chance?
Maxwell and Mulholland face a tough crowd in St Andrews. They’ll be heard, but will they be heeded? To sway clubs reluctant to trust youth, they must argue to those owners’ self-interest.
Patriotic appeals are secondary. Every person in that room ultimately answers to their own club. If that strategy includes a core of homegrown players, great—and plenty of lower-league teams are fully committed to giving their kids a chance.
If others believe scouring the globe is their best route to success, they’ll follow that path. Their duty, as they see it, is to their own results.