James Wilson has Hearts asset that amazes me and there's one word that sums up why I love to watch him – Ryan Stevenson
Fearless. That’s what I like most about watching James Wilson’s emergence at Hearts at the age of just 17.
The schoolboy wonder has obviously got bags of ability but it’s his attitude during a difficult season which has really impressed me. With 17 first team appearances and five goals under his belt - including in Europe and an Edinburgh derby - he looks like he is living the dream. Don’t forget, for some, the pressure at Tynecastle during a really difficult start to the campaign would have been the thing of nightmares.
But Wilson can go on to be a huge asset for Hearts and carve out a great career for himself if he continues to train like his life depends on it - and play with the freedom of someone who hasn’t a care in the world. It’s something that I always look at because I was the complete opposite at his age. I was in my final year at Chelsea but I felt anxious and completely out my depth.
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We would train with the first team most days and I would do crossing and finishing every day for goalkeeper Mark Bosnich. He used to be a psychopath. I was s***ing myself in case I made a mess of it.
I thought every day I had to be perfect. But then I played with boys who would make mistakes and they didn't really care. I came through with Carlton Cole. He could miss an open goal back then and it wouldn't affect him one bit.
It was about having the ability to forget a mistake instantly and not let it play on your mind. So when I see young boys like James Wilson coming through that are able to deal with that, I think kudos to them. He's getting better and better every time I see him. He’s very good at finding the right areas to score goals. Like his derby equaliser against Hibs late on. What a thrill to score your first derby goal at Easter Road.
To the untrained eye, people will just think, ‘oh, that's quite lucky, he's got a tap-in’. But it's not lucky. It's was his sense of anticipating where the ball was going to go that made him be first in position for the tap-in. He looks like he has got that gift.
If he keeps progressing then he has a real big future. It's always hard with these young kids because it can ebb and flow. He could come back in for pre-season and maybe it just doesn't happen for him. But he is surrounded by good professionals at Hearts and just needs to make sure he's training harder than anybody else to become stronger, fitter, faster.
I liked how he looked alongside Elton Kabangu at the weekend. They were a real handful for Kilmarnock on Saturday. It was a great win against a side that were a bit of a bogey team. That’s now six unbeaten in all competition and the stats tell us that if the league started the day Neil Critchley took over then Hearts would be sitting third.
That’s excellent. I like the way Critchley comes across. I thought it was a gamble when he came in but from listening to him I got a very early impression that I liked his style. He breaks things down and say it as it is. He keeps it simple. From speaking to people inside the club his coaching is very good.
This transfer window was always going to be big for him. They did the right thing by getting players in early. That put the fans at ease. I reckon there might be one or two more arrivals aswell.
It takes me back to when I signed for Hearts from Ayr on winter deadline day 15 years ago. It was the longest day of my life. I was sat in the Somerset Park office from 9am in the morning til 9pm. I knew Hearts and St Johnstone were both in for me.
The manager, Brian Reid, was mates with Derek McInnes. It had looked like I would go to St Johnstone but then Jim Jefferies got the Hearts job a couple of days before the window shut. He had previously tried to sign me for Kilmarnock and when I heard Hearts were interested my mind was made up.
But with three hours of the window left I was still sitting in the Somerset Park office. They wanted me to go to St Johnstone but, to be fair to the Ayr chairman, he eventually asked ‘okay, where do you want to go Ryan?’ It was an easy answer: Hearts.
My agent told me to get in the car and drive through to Edinburgh. I wasn’t great with directions. I got on the Kingston Bridge and I still didn't know where I was going. Thankfully I made it but by the time I’d done my medical and got through the vital bits of paperwork there was only minutes left to spare.
It was right at the death. I remember sitting on the M8 on the way home thinking ‘wow’. I’d just gone from Ayr to Hearts. It was the best journey I ever made in my career.
