Advertisement

David Watson has Kilmarnock braced for transfer bids as Derek McInnes 'expects speculation'

Derek McInnes admits it's only natural for clubs to be preparing transfer bids for Kilmarnock standout David Watson.

The young attacker, 19, won Young Player of the Year from the PFA and has also been nominated by the Scottish Football Writer's Association for the same gong. It's been a brilliant campaign for the young man who has five goals and three assists from 42 appearances in all competitions. McInnes, the Killie boss, knows there's bound to be plenty of interest in the teenager and it's no wonder.

But the former Aberdeen manager hopes he can convince the kid to stick around and help the club beyond this season to ensure his profile improves further at Rugby Park. "Is it not just brilliant? What a story it is," Del posed. "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.

"He is only going to get better. He was in good company with the nominees and to come out on top is fantastic for him.

"There have been a lot of top players who have won that award and went on to have brilliant careers and he is another one."