Michael Beale has compared Joe Aribo and Brandon Barker with Virgil van Dijk and Moussa Dembele.
The former Chelsea coach is believed to be the brains in the Ibrox coaching operation with Gary McAllister mainly in the dug-out to provide reassurance to fans with more traditional views.
Aribo and Barker were part of the 2019 recruitment campaign with only a token fees involved to take the starlets from Charlton and Manchester City.
During his time at the Etihad Barker was loaned out to Rotherham, NAC Brenda, Hibs and Preston where he started 24 league matches in four years
While hyping up Gerrard to an English audience Beale told Goal:
I think financially we have to be very open with our recruitment. We don’t get anywhere near what even the Championship teams get. We have a lot of top Under-23s players, Brandon Barker, Ryan Kent, Joe Aribo.
These are players that were either struggling for a breakthrough or needed a career before a career. It is very much the same at the other big club Celtic, Moussa Dembele came in from Fulham before moving on. Victor Wanyama and Virgil Van Dijk did the same. Odsonne Edouard is a very good player also.
Van Dijk and Dembele played in the Champions League for Celtic while winning the Scottish title.
Barker has started two league games at Ibrox this season, in January Juventus dropped their interest in Aribo who lost his place in Gerrard’s side to Ianis Hagi.