NEW Partick Thistle signing David Amoo has revealed how a former team-mate in the Liverpool Under-21 set-up sold him on a switch to Scottish football.
Amoo, a pacy winger who racked up 13 goals in 63 appearances for Carlisle before leaving when his contract expired in May, spent his formative years at Liverpool and was highly regarded enough to make a Europa League appearance in the Merseyside club's 2010-2011 campaign.
His Anfield contemporary, Alex Cooper, now plies his trade at Falkirk and it was the Scot's experience and championing of the game north of the border that proved decisive in determining Amoo's choice of club.
"Alex is a good friend and we have always kept in touch since we both left Liverpool," Amoo said. "He filled me in on Scottish football and what to expect. He had nothing but positive things to say about Thistle and the game up here in general. I know that the pace can be frenetic at times but I am not worried about that.
"I also knew a bit from speaking with Nacho Novo and Lee Miller, who both played for Carlisle when I was there, and from [former Partick Thistle player and assistant boss] Davie Irons, who was No.2 at Carlisle during my first season."
Amoo featured prominently on the radar of several English league clubs and, given the parlous state of finances in Scottish football, it appears likely that remaining down south would have been a more lucrative choice.
However, the player confessed to having wearied of a nomadic existence that has seen him represent seven different English clubs already at the age of just 24. The obvious desire of Thistle manager Alan Archibald to bring Amoo on board chimed with the player's own desire to carve out a longer-term footballing future.
"My agent had been speaking to Thistle for quite a few weeks and I was keen on the move from the start," Amoo added. "If it hadn't been for the fact that I was away on holiday, I would have joined the club earlier."
Amoo was reluctant to cite any individual Liverpool players as having been a particular source of inspiration during his years at Anfield but revealed that the club's greatest-ever player, and one of Scotland's finest, had impressed him. He recalled: "I didn't look up to any players in particular, alt-hough obviously just being around guys like Steven Gerrard in training was fantastic, but Kenny Dalglish (then the Liverpool boss) was quite heavily involved with the youth set-up and I really ad-mired how hands-on he was, and how much time he devoted to helping the young players develop.
"Liverpool is a great club to learn your trade at and they taught me a lot of good habits. Hopefully, Thistle fans will see the benefits of that. I like to get on the ball and run at players, as well as getting in good crosses and scoring a few as well. I have set myself a goals target and I can't wait to get started."
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