Dundee’s Craig Wighton admits he would like nothing better than to play against fellow “Cathro Clinic” graduates Ryan Gauld and John Souttar next season.
The teenage striker who is on international duty with the Scotland under-17s, previously attended football classes run by youth coach Ian Cathro along with the talented Dundee United duo.
Now, he is hoping that Dundee can clinch promotion from the Championship so he can sample the experience of playing in a city derby against his old pals.
Wighton, who netted from the penalty spot for the under-17s on Monday night against Bosnia-Herzegovina, said: “I was at the Cathro Clinic.
“There are a lot of boys who have been there, like Ryan Gauld and John Souttar. I was there for four years and Ian Cathro was a great coach.
“You see how well they are doing and a lot of that is down to Ian his coaching was brilliant. Just everything he does is with the ball skills, different stuff.
“When you are younger, it is great just to learn skills, do one v ones, and two v twos. I learned a lot that way.
“Hopefully Dundee will get promoted, although Hamilton are also playing well just now, so we will see what happens. But if we did, to play in a derby would obviously be a great experience.
“I would quite fancy coming up against them again in a Dundee derby.
“I used to train and play against them when I was younger so hopefully, if we do go up, the derbies will be back on next year.”
Wighton, who is still just 16, also revealed he could have followed the same pathway as Gauld and Souttar by joining United but he admitted that his family would definitely not have approved.
He said; “All my family are Dundee fans. I had the chance to join Dundee United but it was never an option for me. I think my family would have disowned me.”
Wighton’s meteoric rise has put him on the radar of top clubs, with the likes of Arsenal, Manchester United, Manchester City and Celtic all being linked with the youngster.
However, he insists he is just happy to continue his footballing education at Dens.
He added: “I much prefer training with the first team. There are a lot of good, experienced strikers at Dundee so I am just trying to learn from them in training every day and push as hard as I can to get more game time.
“I think I have played 11 times this season, five times from the start. I am still obviously just 16 so it is good to be involved training with the first team every day. It is all good experience for me.
“Obviously if a bigger club came in down the line then you never know, but at the moment I am just happy to be at Dundee for the next two to three years.
“If I went down to England then I would probably be playing with my own age group, but the Championship is a decent league with some good experienced players as well.”
Dundee boss Paul Hartley was one of the spectators watching Wighton in action for Scotland at Rugby Park on Monday night.
The manager, who replaced John Brown in the Dens Park hot-seat last month, has introduced his own ideas on the training pitch and Wighton admitted he is relishing the new regime.
He added: “The training is a lot sharper, there is more agility work, and tactically as well he is a really good manager.
“Since he has come in, there has also been a big change in attitude. A lot of boys are pushing for starts now.
“We have got a couple of big games coming up Hamilton then Falkirk the following week, so hopefully I can be in the squads for that.”
Scotland under-17 coach Mark Wotte praised Wighton for his contribution against Bosnia and noted that the teenager really seems to be benefiting from training with the Dark Blues’ first-team.
He said: “Every player who plays against Craig seems to underestimate him, because he is quicker than they think and more skilful than they think.
“After five minutes, their central defender got a bit scared of him because suddenly he was off his shoulder, and hit the post.
“I thought after that he had a spell where he could have done a little bit better. But in the second half he was playing in behind Ryan Hardie, and playing on the right.
“You can see that he is training with first-team players now. He has a little bit of an advance on the rest.”