Glasgow Rangers boss Giovanni van Bronckhorst has shown a willingness to dip into the academy to unearth new talent since arriving at Ibrox last year.

He has handed opportunities to the likes of Alex Lowry, Charlie McCann, and Adam Devine throughout 2022, whilst Leon King has been a regular in the side throughout the current campaign.

Prior to his arrival, Steven Gerrard was also willing to promote B team players into the first-team squad and one brilliant example of this was right-back, Nathan Patterson.

The gem, who joined the academy for £0 at the age of eight in 2009, was backed by Gerrard to make the breakthrough, with the former Gers coach admitting that he allowed other players to leave in order to develop Patterson, saying:

“He has got a massive future ahead of him and we just need to keep guiding him and shaping him and improving him. We have got a player here, I think.
"I think you've seen the moves I've made in terms of the squad. I moved two or three full-backs on because I had big confidence in Calvin Bassey and also Nathan." He made his first-team debut in the 2019/20 campaign and made 27 first-team appearances for the club in all competitions under Gerrard and Van Bronckhorst combined before earning himself a transfer to Premier League side Everton in January 2022.

The club confirmed that the move was a club-record fee for the Light Blues, which Sky Sports reported to be £16m, and sporting director Ross Wilson commented on the gem's growth in Glasgow, saying:

“Personally, Nathan is someone that I’ve placed a lot of faith in since I joined Rangers. We saw top potential in him and I’ve enjoyed working with him and seeing him develop every day.

“Nathan is supported brilliantly by his family and as Rangers fans, I know they are extremely proud of his Rangers achievements."

The dynamo, who was once dubbed "first class" at international level by Callum McGregor, only played 11 times in the Premiership for the club, as captain James Tavernier was ahead of him, but made his Scotland debut in 2021 whilst at Rangers.

Gerrard was ready to cast other, senior full-backs, aside - according to his aforementioned quotes - to allow Patterson the chance to develop at Ibrox and it worked perfectly.

The defender was able to play a supporting role behind Tavernier whilst getting minutes in several competitions and playing for his country at international level, which was enough to attract interest from Everton.

This led to a club-record exit, which has since been trumped by Calvin Bassey's move to Ajax for roughly £23m in the summer, and this gave Ross Wilson plenty of money to work with to improve the squad moving forward.

Therefore, Rangers struck gold by unearthing Patterson from the youth team and Van Bronckhorst will now be hoping the likes of Lowry, McCann, Devine, and King can also go on to be record-breakers in the future.