Lee Johnson has been chatting about how he first spotted Ross Stewart and how he hopes to develop the Scot and other young players he has at the club…
SCOUTING STEWART
“It was my very good friend, Brian McDermott. I was at actually pretty close to taking another job at the time and Brian wanted to work with me and we were talking about the potential role, which was in the Championship and potential players that we might bring in. He (McDermott) has got a really good eye and has been in football a really long time. We had a really good watch of him for someone else, and that was how he (Stewart come on the radar) and I know Rosco turned down Championship clubs to come to us. I think the journey of Rosco sort of excited me as well, because he come up from the juniors in Scotland and sort of progressed bit and was sort of a late developer as well. I think Rosco will end up playing until he’s sort of 36-37 quite comfortably with his agility if he stays clear of injury. It wasn’t especially a succession plan to replace Charlie (Wyke) because we knew they could play together, but it was part of the thinking.”
CONTROL
“I think keeping a level on things internally is easy. I think externally, I suppose, is the hard bit to control. I think what you can control, you have a chance to influence, all we can control is improving the performance. I don’t think we’ve got a group that will get ahead of themselves to be honest. Obviously, that comes back down to recruitment as well. I think our challenge will be the winter. We’ve got a lot of young players. My experience with young players is that in the summer they’re very good and while the pitches are good and while the sky is blue and the weather is warm They haven’t got that sort of hardiness for when there’s sleet and when it’s cold.”
