Hearts' James Wilson, who scored his 10th senior goal for the club in a European match against Rapid Vienna on Thursday, has made 49 appearances for the Tynecastle side despite being only 19. He stands as an outlier in Scottish football's ongoing talent drain to England, an issue that the newly-appointed SFA chief football officer Craig Mulholland is now seeking to address.
Wilson's continued development at Hearts comes as the club lost three of its most promising academy products to English clubs this summer. Alfie Osborne, an 18-year-old defender who captained Hearts' Youth Cup winning team, moved to Chelsea for £400,000. Keir McMeekin, a 16-year-old playmaker, joined Manchester City's under-18s on a scholarship deal that could earn Hearts a seven-figure sum in future years. Boyd Fraser, also 16, has headed to Nottingham Forest's U18 side.
Hearts academy exodus highlights broader problem
Osborne's departure marks the third member of the Youth Cup winning squad to leave for the English Premier League, less than four months after the team secured its first success in the competition for two decades. Speaking to one member of the Hearts Academy coaching staff recently, McMeekin was described as a "generational talent" who would undoubtedly have been a first team player in the near future.
Ironically, Craig Mulholland may have seen the early workings of Fraser's move to Nottingham Forest, having left his position as Forest's head of football development and talent management to take up his role at Hampden three months ago. The former Rangers academy director is now ideally placed to tackle an issue that has been magnified since Brexit laws made it more difficult for English academies to bring in foreign youngsters, prompting them to turn to Scotland instead.
Mulholland convenes summit to address talent drain
Mulholland, fresh from playing a lead role in identifying and appointing Sebastien Pocognoli as the national team's new head coach, has wasted no time in calling a summit of Scotland's top clubs to discuss the issue. He admits he was a "poacher turned gamekeeper" on the issue due to his efforts to keep talent in Scotland with Rangers, then the complete opposite at Forest.
While the three prodigies who have left Hearts this summer have secured what appears to be an incredible opportunity, the reality for the majority is very different. U18 football is followed by U21s, Premier League 2, loans to lower league clubs and, for most, not a single minute of Premier League football.
First team opportunities at the crux of the matter
The stats for minutes played by homegrown players under the age of 21 in the Scottish Premiership in recent years have made for stark reading. Clubs cannot complain about the talent drain when they have shied away from handing a raw but exciting young talent his chance, instead having their head turned by another foreign player with 'good stats'.
The six-figure sums banked for losing an academy kid midway through their key development years is nothing compared to what could be achieved if they move on at 21 or 22 with over 100 top team games under their belt, as seen with Lennon Miller at Motherwell.
Mulholland, who admits it is "not a simple fix", is about to start a conversation on a hugely important subject for Scottish football. At Pocognoli's unveiling on Monday, he said: "We need to become a nation that wants to develop talent as opposed to being a nation that maybe trades in a way that the countries with big broadcast revenues do. Because we're not that. I actually think we could create something quite special if we put all those bits together and get that right."
The subject has been paid lip service over the decades without anyone really forcing the issue. Mulholland is serious about the matter, and this summit has to be just the start.
