Glasgow Rangers manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst has proven that he is not afraid to hand opportunities to players from the Ibrox academy this season.

The Dutch head coach has made Leon King a regular in the first team and the likes of Alex Lowry, Adam Devine, and Charlie McCann have been given game time throughout 2022.

They will all be hoping to follow in the footsteps of other successful academy graduates, including players like Billy Gilmour and Nathan Patterson, who are both playing in the Premier League at this moment in time.

One academy graduate who went on to bigger things after leaving the club was Scottish central midfielder Charlie Adam, who retired at the end of last season.

He made his debut for the Light Blues as a youngster in the 2003/04 campaign and eventually became a regular in the first-team in 2006/07 as he racked up 28 Premiership outings and chipped in with eight goals and four assists from midfield.

However, the youngster then fell out of favour as he only featured in 25 Scottish top-flight matches in the following two seasons combined and this led to him going out on loan to English side Blackpool for the second half of the 2008/09 campaign.

Adam scored two goals in 13 Championship outings before he reportedly returned to Glasgow for talks with the club to decide whether or not the then-23-year-old still had a future at Ibrox. They seemingly decided that he did not as he then sealed a permanent switch to Blackpool for a fee of £500k in the summer of 2009.

In his first full season down in England, the midfielder scored 18 goals and provided nine assists in 46 Championship matches as he helped his side to win promotion to the Premier League via the play-offs.

The "wonderful" maestro - as dubbed by Glenn Hoddle, then caught the eye in the English top flight as he enjoyed a stellar campaign with Blackpool. He scored 12 goals and assisted eight and this caught the attention of Premier League giants Liverpool.

Adam, whose left foot was once dubbed a "strong weapon" by Christian Poulsen, sealed a £7.5m transfer to Anfield in the summer of 2011, just two years after leaving Rangers for £500k.

This shows that he thrived after leaving Ibrox and was sold at the wrong time by the Scottish giants as he could have fulfilled his potential in Glasgow if he was given the opportunity to play more often.

Blackpool were willing to give him regular game time and benefitted from that by making a gigantic profit on the central midfielder, whilst also getting two years of fantastic service out of him.

Therefore, Rangers had a nightmare by selling the now 36-year-old for £500k as his career after departing the club suggests that it was a huge mistake to allow him to depart.