Rangers job sees Lumsden benefit from all experiences

Rangers’ Under-17 coach Todd Lumsden has just come through a summer of change, however the more things changed for the 35-year-old the more he realised that he had skills and experience that were extremely transferrable.

Lumsden, who was a towering centre back for Stirling Albion, Hamilton Accies and Raith Rovers as well as with the Coatbridge side, ended 3 years of being the Assistant Manager to Paul Martin in the summer of 2012 when he took on the top job at Cliftonhill.

There was a parting of the ways at the end of last season as Rovers moved down, and ironically Rangers moved up, as the club’s board changed their mind on a new deal for their manager. For the first time in 16 years Lumsden was not involved in football however his break was not to be for too long as he was snapped up by the Ibrox club to help develop the next wave of talent to come out of Murray Park.

Lumsden is now helping to run one of the Rangers’ Youth Teams and his new job is very much like his old job as he explained: “Our squad is split between part time and full time players. I work with the part time players and the full time boys work with the rest of the coaching staff including Billy Kirkwood and Jimmy Sinclair.

“Billy and Jimmy work with the players during the day and I work with the other boys a couple of nights a week as well as at the weekends.”

The job Lumsden is doing has a familiar feel as he explained: “My new role is probably closest to the assistant manager role I had at Albion Rovers along with manager Paul Martin. Paul would provide the framework we would work to and trust me to get on with things.”

“That is much the same approach that we have with the under-17 team at Rangers. I enjoyed working that way at the Rovers and it was a successful period for the club as well as we won promotion via the play-offs and then stayed up.”

After leaving Cliftonhill in May Lumsden was not sure what his footballing future was and he said: “I received a phone call a week to ten days after I left Rovers asking what my plans were. It came from Craig Mulholland who is the Academy Operations Manager at Murray Park and he mentioned the possibility of working with Rangers. It was great to hear although he was keen to stress that nothing was for definite”.

“Craig knew me as a coach as I had done a couple of qualifications alongside him. He also knew me as a person and was keen to bring me in if the opportunity arose as thankfully I had experience and knowledge that they wanted.”

“That suited me as I was not in a mad rush to go straight back into things as I had a tour of Spain to do with my Cumbernauld College team. I was also due to go to Florida for a family wedding. I was relaxed as I had my first summer in many years not worrying about pre-season fixtures, training schedules, the press and signing players.”

Lumsden added: “I eventually went on holiday relaxed and excited about the challenges ahead in a new job as I got told the day before I left that Rangers were keen on taking things further. When the call came to get involved I was delighted and jumped at the chance as when you get offered a job like this at Rangers you cannot turn it down.”

The break from football that Lumsden had been anticipating never really came as the Curriculum Manager for the Football Performance course at Cumbernauld College said: “After thinking I would be out of the game for a while it turned into quite a short small break. I enjoyed it all the same as I was able to get on with my involvement in football at the college, then my holiday and then securing this my new job.”

“I never quite jumped straight back into football but I am back in and back enjoying it.”

The move from first team senior football to working with the new kids on the block has been an easy transition for Lumsden who said: “There is a great symmetry or indeed a nice alignment with the job I do during the day at the College. The age profile of the players is very similar and the environment you are looking for the players to work in is very similar. You want the players to develop through the repetition of practice as well as from playing the game.”

“It is different from a first team environment as it is all about development.”

That development comes in fixtures against the future stars of other Scottish clubs with Lumsden saying: “We play in a national league against the likes of Aberdeen, Dundee United and Celtic and we are doing okay this season. You get some really great performances but of course you get the odd element of inconsistency that you get from a young group.”

“What you are looking to help build is a level of consistency so the players are doing the same against Hamilton Accies as they are against Celtic the next week as they are against Dundee United the week after that.”

Like Students develop in a college environment the Rangers youngsters are developing in the Murray Park environment with Lumsden saying: “The players that are here are all good technical players, they have to be to be involved here, and we build on that. The vast majority are local boys although we have a few Irish boys as well as well as the boys that come in from Ayrshire and Edinburgh.”

“The facilities that we have to work with are fantastic with 4 immaculate grass pitches to work on and an artificial pitch that has a new surface in place. The equipment and resources are fantastic.”

Having had time to reflect on his move from senior to youth football Lumsden said: “Looking back I enjoyed my experience at Albion Rovers as nothing you learn from in life is wasted.  No experience is ever wasted.”

“The time I spent there will help me a lot in this job as I have seen how football operates at various levels now. That can help in advising players about things like loan moves to part-time clubs. I can tell players about what a club will be looking for when a youngster comes in and also what they should be looking for in any move.”

Craig Stewart