McInnes expects interest in Watson from ‘bigger clubs’

KILMARNOCK: Kilmarnock boss Derek McInnes expects offers for PFA Scotland young player of the year David Watson.The 19-year-old midfielder came through the Killie academy, helping the club to fourth place in the cinch Premiership and European football next season.

Watson came out on top of a shortlist which included Motherwell’s Lennon Miller, Dundee midfielder Lyall Cameron and Rangers winger Ross McCausland to become the first non-Old Firm player to win the award voted by his peers since Scotland captain Andy Robertson was chosen when at Dundee United in 2014.

McInnes said: “Is it not just brilliant? What a story it is.“A lot of managers speak to me about him, people on the street, supporters from other clubs, they always make reference to David Watson.

“He is a credit to his family, he is their boy, but we feel that he is ours at the club, he has been around the club for so long.“We were so proud when he picked up his award. We were hopeful but you are never totally confident. “The fact that he has been nominated by the Scottish Football Writers as well, is fantastic.

“I think we should expect speculation about Davie, we should expect clubs to be more than aware of him, bigger clubs than us. That’s the way it goes. We would be surprised if there wasn’t.

“He has been a fantastic story for us, he is from the academy, a real flagship player for that.“We have signed a few more players since David has established himself in the team.“He is a great way for us to try to get boys to sign. We are confident we can keep more younger players at Killie. There’s a couple in who we have high hopes but we would like David to hang about a bit longer.

“As a manager you want to hold on to your best players as long as we can but we understand the market and if there are offers that come in for him, as I would expect, it is something that we would have to look at but we don’t want to lose him. He is a credit to himself.”