IAN BARACLOUGH, the Motherwell manager, has told Lee Erwin that he would have been better signing a new deal at Fir Park than heading off to agree a three-year contract with Leeds United.
The 21-year-old forward has headed to Elland Road on a free transfer with his former employers at Fir Park now set to push for a training compensation fee, having had him on the books for almost 10 years.
"We are obviously disappointed to lose a player like Lee and I told the lad himself I think he would've benefited from a further year playing week to week in our first-team," said Baraclough.
"However, with that all being said, I understand how football works and Leeds United is a great club with a great tradition.
"It's a big opportunity for him. We're very proud of him and what he's achieved.
"From our point of view, it's a feather in the cap for our Elite Academy; for Chris McCart, Gordon Young and Scott Leitch as well as the individual coaches and the scouts who worked with Lee from such a young age.
"They are often overlooked, but this is yet another example of Motherwell producing or recruiting a player, developing them and helping them move up the football ladder.
"That's exactly our strategy for the forthcoming years and the challenge for myself and everyone at the club is to find the next Lee Erwin, and do it all over again.
"I would like to personally thank Lee for all his effort since my arrival at the club. He has been absolutely superb for me both in matches and in training and has earned this move.
"We wish him all the very best in his career down south."
Erwin played a key role in keeping Motherwell in the SPFL Premiership thanks to his displays in their 6-1 aggregate victory over Rangers in the play-off final and became involved in a violent spat with Bilel Mohsni after that match.
Erwin pushed Mohsni in the back at the final whistle after the Rangers defender had refused to shake his hand and was then kicked and punched by the Tunisian, sparking scenes that are still being investigated by the Scottish Football Association.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article