Last month, Jim Goodwin, manager of Premiership club St Mirren, stated that Rangers and Celtic were interested in Buddies wonderkid Dylan Reid [Not The Old Firm].
He then claimed that several English and German clubs were also monitoring the midfielder.
Those comments came around two weeks after the 16-year-old had made his first-team debut for St Mirren, as a late substitute in a 3-0 defeat at Ibrox, becoming the youngest ever Premiership player in the process.
Much to Goodwin’s delight, though, Reid has opted to remain in Paisley, signing a two-year contract just days later.
Now, the manager has explained why the interest from the Old Firm clubs and even last season’s Champions League winners Bayern Munich, was snubbed.
“There were loads of clubs interested in him,” he said [Not The Old Firm]. “Dylan went over to Germany to see Bayern’s facilities and as you can imagine, both he and his family were blown away by the infrastructure on offer. But this wasn’t a financial decision for Dylan.”
“If it was coming down to finances then there was no point in us being at the table. But we hoped to offer him what those teams couldn’t and that was training with the first team on a daily basis. If and when he earns the right to, he plays first-team football.
“We hope that when Dylan comes to the end of his current contract at 18, he has at least 50 senior appearances under his belt. If he had went to one of the bigger teams, he would have been kicking about playing youth football. He wasn’t lured by the big contracts and we are delighted to have him.”
It’s probably a fair assessment that, had Reid moved to Ibrox at this stage of his career, he would have spent several seasons as an Academy player before getting a chance to break into the senior squad, such is the quality of the players in the current setup.
There’s every chance that the club will continue to keep an eye on the St Mirren starlet’s development, though, and perhaps in 2023, he will be available on the cheap.
Meanwhile, a Rangers loanee is finally in line to make his Premiership debut, six months after heading out of Ibrox.