Pat Nevin

Once described by NME as football’s “first postpunk footballer”, Pat Nevin loves a man with his own style. To that end, he’s quickly become a big fan of Tom Davies, a fellow music aficionado with the tousled hair and rolled down socks. He was delighted to see the youngster pen a new deal earlier this month and believes the youngster, like his Club, has a big, bright future ahead…

- Darren Griffiths

Pat, Ronald Koeman has shown he’s happy to give young players his chance but he wouldn’t do that unless he was 100-per-cent sure they were ready…

No, people have done that before, thrown players in too early and it’s had an incredibly negative effect – not just on the Club and the team but also the young players themselves. But if they are good enough and they have the right mentality – and that’s the imperative, you have the right mentality – then go and throw them in. If you learn at 18 to 20 to play without fear, it never comes back but if you don’t get first-team games until 21, 22, there’s something in there, a fear that you need to get rid of. You can’t ever know but if you believe a player is going to be able to handle it, get them in because they’ll learn quickly. Those three years between 18 and 20 are when you can learn so much. Wayne Rooney is a classic example but there are plenty more. How many internationals do you know who weren’t playing first team football as teenagers? Top players always do.

Tom Davies seems to have taken the step up in his stride…