RYDC have been speaking to Academy graduates about their time at Rangers and life after the Light Blues, and next up is former defender Jordan Houston.<\/p>\n
The talented right-back, now 26, spent 13 years with his boyhood heroes, and although he didn\u2019t play as many first-team games as he would have liked, he will always be grateful for the grounding he received at the club.<\/p>\n
Jordan learned from the likes of Billy Kirkwood, Peter Lovenkrands and Kevin Thomson before training regularly with the senior squad, and Steven Gerrard handed him his competitive debut in a Scottish Cup tie at Cowdenbeath in January 2019.<\/p>\n
It was a moment he will never forget and a reward for more than a decade of hard graft at the Academy.<\/p>\n
A loan move to Airdrie followed, ex-Ger Ian Murray took him to the Lanarkshire club, and then another former Ranger, Ian McCall, recruited him for Ayr United – initially on loan before making the switch permanent in January 2020.<\/p>\n
He thrived at Somerset Park, then spent a season at Queen of the South in 2023\/24 before linking up with McCall again at Clyde.<\/p>\n
A life-changing experience in Finland with FC Haka was next for the Scottish youth international, and he now plays for League of Ireland side Waterford, who were recently managed by one-time Ibrox striker Jon Daly and assisted by ex-defender Richard Foster.<\/p>\n
Speaking as he showed his support for The Rangers Youth Development Company<\/a>, who donated another \u00a3300,000 to the Academy in February, making it more than \u00a312.5 million since 2002, Houston reflected on his journey in football so far.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cI\u2019m a Rangers fan and all I wanted to do was play for the club.<\/p>\n \u201cJim McNee, one of the club\u2019s scouts, actually lived around the corner from me in East Kilbride, and he helped bring me to Rangers.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you join, you’re only thinking about one thing, and that’s playing for the club. That\u2019s the dream, and it\u2019s obviously very difficult.<\/p>\n \u201cFootball is a team sport, but you need to do as much as you can for yourself within the team environment. <\/p>\n \u201cWhen I was coming through, we had players like Ross and Robby McCrorie, Ryan Hardie, Jamie Barjonas, Josh McPake, Stephen Kelly and Glenn Middleton.<\/p>\n \u201cThey all played for the first-team when they were young, and it always gave me the hope that I could do the same. That was my motivation, and the signs were there that it was possible. <\/p>\n \u201cI worked with Billy Kirkwood, Craig Mulholland, Graeme Murty, Peter Lovenkrands and Kevin Thomson in brief spells when I was coming through the Academy.<\/p>\n \u201cThey had big influences on me and helped me massively, which is all you can ask for as a young kid. <\/p>\n \u201cIt was great to learn from Peter and Kevin, who played for the club and had great careers. They were obviously great professionals and happy to share their experiences. <\/p>\n \u201cBut going back to Kirky, he was a massive influence in terms of how good he was with all the young players. <\/p>\n \u201cHe was an excellent coach on the pitch and an excellent guy. Everybody respected him and really took to him.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was also excellent off the pitch on a personal level too.<\/p>\n \u201cFootball can be tough, and if things weren’t going well, he was always speaking to players and trying to help them.<\/p>\n \u201cYou have to learn about the off-pitch struggles that can happen to young players, and he was someone you could go to. He was such a big help.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was actually the Loans Manager when I left, so he had a lot of influence on my development. <\/p>\n \u201cWhen I moved permanently, he was still in contact with me, and I was grateful for his support.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are twists and turns and bumps in the road with every journey in football, but I look back on my time at Rangers positively.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously, I would have loved to have played for the club a lot more, but it was a fortunate time, and I loved every second of it.<\/p>\n \u201cI got to work with Steven Gerrard, and he had a presence and an aura about him.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember the first time he spoke to the youth players when we came back for pre-season. The first thing he said was, \u2018If you’re good enough, you’re old enough\u2019, and straight away that gives you confidence.<\/p>\n \u201cI knew that if I could show what I could do, he was open to giving me the chance. I just had to prove to him that I deserved it and show my capabilities.<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s obviously incredible to work with someone of his stature and also his staff, with the knowledge and the football background they all have.<\/p>\n \u201cTo have that opportunity was incredible, and I made my debut under Steven Gerrard in a cup game against Cowdenbeath.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was originally postponed a few hours before kick-off, which was a blow as I was going to be part of the squad.<\/p>\n \u201cWe then played a friendly at Ibrox against Helsinki, and I played in that and then made my competitive debut in the rescheduled cup game.<\/p>\n \u201cTo make my debut was a dream come true. You don\u2019t have time to think about it or process it at the time, as there are so many emotions.<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s something that can never get taken away from you, and I achieved my dream, which was to play for the club.<\/p>\n \u201cOnce you get a taste of it, you want more of it. It’s as simple as that, and it\u2019s almost addictive.<\/p>\n \u201cI went on loan to Airdrie and worked with Ian Murray. That was my first introduction to lower league football, and it was totally different.<\/p>\n \u201cI then went to Ayr Utd on loan, and Rangers offered me a contract to stay, but I knew it was going to be difficult to displace James Tavernier at right back. <\/p>\n \u201cHe was the captain and an excellent servant, so there wasn\u2019t really a pathway into the first-team at that time for me, unfortunately.<\/p>\n \u201cIt wasn\u2019t an easy decision to leave Rangers permanently, but I had to go and play games, showcase what I could do and make a career for myself<\/p>\n \u201cI managed to do that at Ayr under Ian McCall, who was absolutely brilliant for me and great to work under.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a club that was in a really good place and on the rise.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a dressing room with a good mix of experienced and younger players who were in the same position as me.<\/p>\n \u201cIn 2023, it was time for me to try something else, and I joined Queen of South, who were quite ambitious at the time.<\/p>\n \u201cThen I went to Clyde and worked with Ian McCall again. He trusted me, and I knew what he and his staff were like to work under.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a short stint at Clyde as my ambition was always to try and play at a higher level, and then the life-changing opportunity came for me in Finland with Haka.<\/p>\n \u201cIt came at a time in my career when I was probably looking for something different. <\/p>\n \u201cIt came at the perfect time, to be honest. The manager, Andy Smith, was very close with Michael Beale, which had a bit of an influence on it happening, and I absolutely loved my time in Finland. <\/p>\n \u201cIt was a huge change at a good time for not just me but my family and my girlfriend, who came over, and we absolutely loved it. <\/p>\n \u201cIt was very tactical and very technical, and I felt like I settled in really nicely.<\/p>\n \u201cFinland is a beautiful country, but I didn’t know what to expect when I went there in January, when it was minus 20!<\/p>\n \u201cI really bought into the Finnish culture as well, and it was definitely a good league. There was a lot of travelling to games, but it was an experience I absolutely loved.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was my first time away from home, and I learned a lot about myself.<\/p>\n \u201cI really enjoyed myself over there. I really enjoyed my time playing in the league, and the standard was very good.<\/p>\n \u201cI was very impressed, and I was really happy with how I did over there as well. <\/p>\n \u201cThe manager lost his job during the season, and the club decided to go in a different direction, but I loved my time there playing in a beautiful country. <\/p>\n \u201cI only have good memories of it. <\/p>\n \u201cNow I\u2019m at Waterford and was brought to the club by two other men with Rangers links \u2013 Jon Daly and Richard Foster.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s funny how football works at times. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m only 26, and I\u2019m happy with what I\u2019ve achieved in football so far, but I\u2019ve definitely got aspirations of achieving even more. <\/p>\n \u201cRangers gave me the grounding and platform to go on and have a good career.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m still on my journey, but I\u2019ve had a lot of different experiences. <\/p>\n \u201cThere’s still a long way to go for me, and there’s still a lot I want to achieve as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Jordan\u2019s career development was assisted by annual RYDC donations to the Rangers Academy, and more than \u00a312.5 million has already been provided.<\/p>\n Profit from our online store and products like Rangers Lotto, Stadium Bricks, and The Union Jackpot draw all go to the Academy, while profit from Museum Lotto is donated to the club for the upkeep and maintenance of the Rangers Museum.<\/p>\n Rangers Academy is proudly sponsored by Carrick Packaging<\/a><\/p>\n VIP HOSPITALITY<\/a>: Combining all the passion, excitement and joy of football with an unrivalled choice of suites and packages, a matchday at Ibrox can be exactly what you want it to be <\/p>\n SOCCER ACADEMY<\/a>: Kicking off from 18 months old, with classes across Scotland and Northern Ireland, available term-time and holidays <\/p>\n A<\/a>SK RANGERS<\/a>: A dedicated platform where fans can access essential Q&As on ticketing, VIP hospitality and MyGers, and contact our Supporter Services team <\/p>\n \u2008<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RYDC have been speaking to Academy graduates about their time at Rangers and life after the Light Blues,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":655282,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-655281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=655281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/655282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=655281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=655281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=655281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}