Rangers confirm signing of League Two starlet as EFL club lament 'huge shame' amid transfer joy

Rangers have confirmed their latest signing for their youth ranks, 16-year-old Archie Stevens from English League Two club AFC Wimbledon.

The Ibrox club have been ramping up their u18s squad this week and yesterday signed Bailey Rice from fellow Premiership side Motherwell. Now it's been confirmed they have captured the young forward, having paid an undisclosed fee to bring him into u18 coaches Cameron Campbell and Stevie Smith's guidance.

Wimbledon's academy manager Michael Hamilton said: "We wish Archie every success in the future and we will be monitoring his progress closely. Since day one his potential was clear, but the staff behind the journey have helped develop his skills. We therefore acknowledge the roles that James Oliver-Pearce, Jack Matthews, Ben Fosuhene and Hasib Saed played in Archie’s journey. If he continues to apply himself in the way he has so far then he can achieve whatever he wants.

“Though it’s a huge shame to lose talent before that potential is realised here, it’s a measure of the success of our development programme to be losing players to clubs of this stature.

"We have to accept from time to time that we will lose players and in transferring Archie he becomes the fifth player the academy has sold in the past 24 months.

“For every player we ‘sell’, we have multiple players that we are confident will progress through our own pathway.

"After the emergence of Dylan Adjei-Hersey and Zach Robinson last season, we have more exciting potential and we’ve just announced that four players have signed professional contracts.”

Stevens, along with Rice, are the latest Rangers youth signings after Cammy Cooper, Kieron Willox, Paul Nsio, Souleyman Mandey, Mason Munn, Kerr Robertson, Zander Hutton, Sam