This is an excerpt from this week's Claret and Amber Alert, a free Motherwell newsletter written by Graeme McGarry that goes out every Thursday at 6pm.
This week, Graeme spoke exclusively to Motherwell manager Stuart Kettlewell. To sign up, click here.
Stuart Kettlewell has praised young Motherwell prospect Ewan Wilson for grasping his first team opportunity with both hands, saying his performances so far this season have vindicated the faith he has placed in the 19-year-old.
When experienced left back Steve Seddon arrived at Fir Park in the summer, it was expected by many that Wilson would be set to play a supporting role from the bench this season, or even perhaps go back out on loan following an unhappy spell at Stirling Albion last term and another stint at junior side Beith.
But Wilson impressed his manager during the League Cup group stage, and has now played every minute in the opening four matches of the Premiership campaign, capping off a dream start to the season by making his first appearances for the Scotland under-21 side this week alongside club teammate Lennon Miller.
His manager is delighted by the progress of Wilson, who has taken his advice on board and has shown himself capable of making an impression at Premiership level.
“We have a clear thought process that we have to be developing our own,” Kettlewell said.
“It is essential that we are bringing through our own academy players.
“The players have to earn the opportunity, but we also have to recognise that no two pathways are the same.
“For instance, if I was affected by Ewan Wilson getting sent back from a loan at Stirling Albion and – with all due respect – dropping down to junior level with Beith, then he wouldn’t have played just about every minute for us so far this season.
“Sometimes you have to spend time working with a young player and educating them, and I think the biggest change in Ewan’s life recently has been improving his understanding of proper preparation for training, his understanding of nutrition, and ensuring that he gets himself physically conditioned to play at this level.
“Because he’s got talent, he’s got a lovely left foot, he’s someone who can defend and attack and he has grasped the opportunity with both hands.
“The key word there is opportunity, because if I was swayed by the narrative over his loan spells, then he wouldn’t have played any minutes. I need to go on my gut instinct and how I see it, and I’m prepared to fall on my own sword and go with what I can see with my own two eyes.
“Ewan gets his opportunity because I believe in him, and he is making the most of it.”
Read more:
The presence of Wilson and Miller as mainstays on the Motherwell teamsheet will, Kettlewell hopes, help him towards his goal of establishing his club as the go-to choice for promising young talent, with evidence of the pathway provided at Fir Park clear for all to see.
“That’s got to be the aim,” he said.
“I hope now, from a selfish point of view, that kids are starting to recognise just how good a place Motherwell can be for the development of their career.
“I would hope that we continue to get ourselves into the position where – and this has been going on before my time – where we see more and more success stories of players coming through to our first team.
“We are all fighting for our own cause in many ways, we’re all trying to keep the best talent at our football club and have the best players we can possibly have.
“In the summer there we lost two young players. They were, without question, two of the most talented kids in the country, and we lost them from our youth academy, our under 14s group.
“So, two lads from the same team, one went to Rangers, one went to Celtic. And Rangers and Celtic certainly haven’t done anything wrong there, that’s not my complaint.
“But I would just love to see a world where either myself of David Clarkson, our academy director, can go and speak to parents and hopefully try to educate them that there is a pathway here for young players and that we feel we can educate them.
“There are so many other clubs trying to do the same, and the lure of the big clubs is always there, but I think I am in a position now where I can point to the likes of Lennon Miller and Ewan Wilson, or going further back, a David Turnbull or a James Scott, and show the evidence of the pathway and opportunity that exists at this club.
“This is what we believe in as a football club. And I think we are getting to the stage where young players are seeing the benefit of staying here, because they can see that opportunity exists.
"The evidence is on the park every Saturday.”
