Stephen Robinson admits hard to keep youngsters as Ethan Sutherland departs

St Mirren manager Stephen Robinson stressed the difficulty of persuading young players to prioritise first-team experience over Premier League prestige after his club sold 18-year-old Ethan Sutherland to Wolves.

Sutherland made four appearances for Saints as well as playing for Alloa in a loan spell in the second half of last season, but told the Paisley club he would not extend his contract beyond the end of this campaign.

St Mirren decided to cash in now rather than lose Sutherland for a compensation payment next summer and negotiated an undisclosed fee that could rise with “significant adds on and a future sell on”.

Robinson said: “That’s football now. Premier League clubs are buying players at 16-18 now, they are buying potential. Clubs have got more money, that’s what happens, we are not the only ones to lose young players.

“When I came into the football club, there wasn’t the talent coming through, the processes weren’t in place due to numerous factors. One big factor being Covid, the academy was stripped bare.

“We have built that back up again, we have put staff and processes in place that are now producing players, Ethan being one of those.

“He is a very talented boy with a lot of potential, but he saw his future in England and I think the club got a very good deal with add-ons. When players tell you they’re not going to sign a contract, you have to maximise what you can get.

“My belief is they should stay and play and go as a first-team player rather than an under-21 player. But we had Ethan Erhahon who played more than 100 games and we got more money for Ethan Sutherland, who has played three or four games.

“My belief as a manager is you don’t develop without first-team games. We have a process in place where we put a lot of our fringe players on loan in competitive leagues to come back and be St Mirren players.

“But unfortunately it’s very, very difficult to tell their advisors or parents that the best place is here when opportunities are being dangled in front of them in the Premier League.

“I would encourage my own children to stay and play and get as many games under your belt as you can.

“There’s another thought process of ‘go as high as you can as early as you can’ and if it doesn’t work out you fall back down the ladder at a good level.

“Everybody lives and dies by their decisions and young players have got difficult decisions at that age.”

St Mirren face unbeaten Dundee on Saturday at Dens Park, where they effectively clinched a European place last season with a 3-1 win.

Toyosi Olusanya scored St Mirren’s third goal that day and is looking to use memories of that day to end a run of four consecutive defeats.

“We needed to get something out of that game and we won the first balls and second balls and made it a hard game, we pressed them high,” the striker said.

“If we look towards this game in the same way then hopefully we can get the same result.”