Ethan Laidlaw

[Stuart93]

Anyone know how he’s getting on down by?

Can’t help but think he would’ve had a chance or two under NM if he’d only held on to see the back of LJ

At the same time, can’t blame up jumping at the chance of going down south

[Paulie Walnuts]

Doesn’t seem to be anything about him anywhere online.

No doubt in my mind he’ll be back up the road and playing for someone like Airdrie in a couple years. Going away at his age to a team he’s never going to play for is career suicide.

[worcesterhibby]

Seems to generally come on as a substitute in their B team matches. Both the recent reports I found had him coming on in about the 70 - 80thth minute. The last time against West ham he replaced a certain Romeo Beckham ! then more recently he replaced Max Dickov who is Paul Dickov's son. so he is mingling in famous company.

[Northernhibee]

Think he was a victim of a chronic lack of leadership at the club before McDermott, Montgomery, and Raimundo arrived. Players like Jair allowed to slip through the cracks, no apparent strategy to get youngsters into the first team, and what looks like a lack of instruction on the pitch.

Now we have young players who are getting time on the bench, being trusted in first team games, and with a management/DoF team who seemingly often attend youth and development games there is a lot more scope for the likes of Laidlaw last season to make a breakthrough into the team. As we have a clear style of play and each player has a clear, identifiable role on the pitch a lack of experience matters less.

He left a season too early - I'm sure that Monty would have had a few first team appearances for him, and I'm sure he'd have bagged a goal or two in those.

[Pretty Boy]

It would be a real shame if both Laidlaw and Connor Young ended up not fulfilling their potential, particularly the former who was a real standout at youth level.

I actually argued at the time Hibs took a calculated risk with Young in accepting a bid from Rangers as it was unlikely all 3 of him, Laidlaw and O'Connor would make it and the fact he is now plying his trade at a club at real risk of dropping out the league set up altogether suggests it was the right decision.

The last 2 or 3 years must have been hard for young players at Hibs though. There was little to no opportunity to play 1st team football. These guys must be looking on now and seeing the likes of Whittaker, Landers and Molotnikov in and around the 1st team and have seen Campbell and Doig in the couple of years before and wonder what might have been. For whatever reason for a fairly lengthy spell in between there was no willingness at all to give youth a real chance.

[CapitalGreen]

He’ll be a cheap squad filler for their B Team to help make up the numbers as they develop the players they think will make it in the top flight.

Interestingly, Ryan One who is 18 months younger than Laidlaw and joined Brentford in the summer from Hamilton has already featured for the first team in the Premier League.

[HIBS NUTS]

In hindsight it appears he would have been better staying at hibs, for his development, but at the time, we had a manager who had no interest in playing our youth players .
He is very talented, and was offered a contract, that hibs could not come close to matching.
I hope he has a greaT career , but i suspect, it won’t be at Brentford, or the EPL.

[Centre Hawf]

I think the laddie had his head turned in all honesty, I'm not even sure LJ was as much the issue as his agent.

[worcesterhibby]

In hindsight it appears he would have been better staying at hibs, for his development, but at the time, we had a manager who had no interest in playing our youth players .
He is very talented, and was offered a contract, that hibs could not come close to matching.
I hope he has a greaT career , but i suspect, it won’t be at Brentford, or the EPL.

Who knows, he's currently getting game time with a English Premiership B team, and playing alongside some high profile yougsters. He may well have mader a decent career choice. He will be getting some excellent coaching and every scout in England will get the chance to see him play. Only time will tell.

[Pagan Hibernia]

You just never know with young players. Even if they break into the team and start well it's no guarantee.

Look at the lad Harry Cochrane over the road. He could scarcely have had a better debut season at Hearts at the age of 16 or 17 or whatever he was. 5 years later he's in league one with QOTS.

I'm not getting carried away over whittaker... (really hope he makes it)

[HIBS NUTS]

Unfortunately a lot of talented laddies, don’t make it , for many different reasons, including injuries.
He’s making money, most young guys can dream about.
This highlighted by the unfortunate injury to Murray Aiken, who was doing fantastic for Airdrie , but now faces a long time out, and uncertain future .
Who’s to say getting good money upfront, is the wrong decision.,

[brog]

He’ll be a cheap squad filler for their B Team to help make up the numbers as they develop the players they think will make it in the top flight.

Interestingly, Ryan One who is 18 months younger than Laidlaw and joined Brentford in the summer from Hamilton has already featured for the first team in the Premier League.

Ryan One is at Sheffield United I think.

[Stairway 2 7]

Who knows, he's currently getting game time with a English Premiership B team, and playing alongside some high profile yougsters. He may well have mader a decent career choice. He will be getting some excellent coaching and every scout in England will get the chance to see him play. Only time will tell.

As you say he's coming off the bench for Romeo Beckham who is starting. RB played for arsenal for 1 year before being released at 14, he gave up football completely for 5 years. He rejoined his dad's bteam and was awful. If Laidlaw isn't starting instead of him he can't be content with that, a waisted year.

Laidlaw was offered a new contract and a loan this year like O'connor, Megwa and Aiken. He didn't want a loan. Surely playing in the championship against men would have better for his development than being on the bench against other kids. He's 19 in a few weeks so still has time but I think he needs to play football and against men soon as the jump is huge.

Good luck to him as he was a talented youngster

[Kato]

You just never know with young players. Even if they break into the team and start well it's no guarantee.

Look at the lad Harry Cochrane over the road. He could scarcely have had a better debut season at Hearts at the age of 16 or 17 or whatever he was. 5 years later he's in league one with QOTS.

I'm not getting carried away over whittaker... (really hope he makes it)That's funny. I though Cochrane was sitting on 50 caps as Scotland Captain and tearing it up in the EPL. Sorry forgot, that's what was predicted for him by the sparryheids, not what actually happened.

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[truehibernian]

Very much reminds me of Zak Rudden’s situation - I remember vividly thinking he’d made a mistake going to The Rangers and was disappointed he was drawn and advised towards the money. I always told him careful what you wish for. Zak I must admit proved me very wrong in that he clearly screwed the nut when he realised he wasn’t getting anywhere near the first team and it’s paid dividends in the long run as he’s worked up through the levels and got into a good club, with a degree of ambition. It’s focused him.

My thoughts are Ethan was very very badly advised. Should have been loaned here and remained at Hibs. You never know though, he might work hard and get/take his chance down there - I highly doubt it though.

[TrinityHFC]

In hindsight it appears he would have been better staying at hibs, for his development, but at the time, we had a manager who had no interest in playing our youth players .
He is very talented, and was offered a contract, that hibs could not come close to matching.
I hope he has a greaT career , but i suspect, it won’t be at Brentford, or the EPL.

Don’t think in reality any of our youth players were really ready to be playing in a Hibs team going for third in the league.

If any manager thinks a player will improve the team then they’ll be in.

[erin go bragh]

I think the laddie had his head turned in all honesty, I'm not even sure LJ was as much the issue as his agent.
LG never gave the laddie a sniff of the first team, terrible manager and thank god we're well rid.

[Dmas]

Who knows, he's currently getting game time with a English Premiership B team, and playing alongside some high profile yougsters. He may well have mader a decent career choice. He will be getting some excellent coaching and every scout in England will get the chance to see him play. Only time will tell.

I know a player down at Brentford B, fantastic set up for a young guy, been away in Spain, Portugal playing games last few months as well as domestic games, be on a decent wage in comparison to up here, I don’t think he will regret a couple years down there to see how it goes still young enough to come back if it doesn’t work out

[HIBS NUTS]

Don’t think in reality any of our youth players were really ready to be playing in a Hibs team going for third in the league.

If any manager thinks a player will improve the team then they’ll be in.

I don’t think LJ had us anywhere near 3rd place .
But it wasent the fact ETHAN , or others weren’t playing, they didn’t even make the match squad , there was no encouragement for the youth squad.
Molotnikov and landers are not ready to play a big part in the current hibs team,
However you can bet the current under 18s, will be more motivated under monty than LJ.

[Fanforlife]

I don’t think LJ had us anywhere near 3rd place .
But it wasent the fact ETHAN , or others weren’t playing, they didn’t even make the match squad , there was no encouragement for the youth squad.
Molotnikov and landers are not ready to play a big part in the current hibs team,
However you can bet the current under 18s, will be more motivated under monty than LJ.your spot on in regards to the 18,s enjoying life under monty,grandson thinks its great . He has been training recently with the first team and its pure quality he says😁

[HIBS NUTS]

your spot on in regards to the 18,s enjoying life under monty,grandson thinks its great . He has been training recently with the first team and its pure quality he says😁

Fantastic to hear that, anytime i go down to HTC recently, there is a much better atmosphere, about the whole place.
It’s a translation year for our under 18s, with many of the players very young, but for 3 under 18s to be in the match day squad, is a huge.

[Centre Hawf]

LG never gave the laddie a sniff of the first team, terrible manager and thank god we're well rid.

Definitely agree with all of that.

But as I say I don't think his agent was a helpful influence in all this. If he stayed this year it was only a matter of time before we had another transfer request saga.

[The Modfather]

Definitely agree with all of that.

But as I say I don't think his agent was a helpful influence in all this. If he stayed this year it was only a matter of time before we had another transfer request saga.

Brentford might be the wrong move for him. Although I think it’s potentially a start move. He is probably unlikely to ever make it at Brentford, but a couple of years at a well run club and utilising their facilities, coaching and exposure might stand him in good stead for his next move slightly down the ladder.

I’m not sure there was much of a positive case for him to stay at Hibs beyond the summer. He had just wasted a year playing at a level he had long since outgrown. A years loan would then have been beneficial, but a year later than needed. What happens after the loan every likliehood he comes back to a a club that still has no real intention to give youth a chance whether that was with Johnson or someone new. Annoyingly hindsight shows that within a few months of him leaving Hibs actually reversed the trend and got a manager who is the real deal and genuinely intent on bringing youth through.

[Centre Hawf]

Brentford might be the wrong move for him. Although I think it’s potentially a start move. He is probably unlikely to ever make it at Brentford, but a couple of years at a well run club and utilising their facilities, coaching and exposure might stand him in good stead for his next move slightly down the ladder.

I’m not sure there was much of a positive case for him to stay at Hibs beyond the summer. He had just wasted a year playing at a level he had long since outgrown. A years loan would then have been beneficial, but a year later than needed. What happens after the loan every likliehood he comes back to a a club that still has no real intention to give youth a chance whether that was with Johnson or someone new. Annoyingly hindsight shows that within a few months of him leaving Hibs actually reversed the trend and got a manager who is the real deal and genuinely intent on bringing youth through.

I hope for the best for him but I'm not sure I see it that way. These academies all have 3/4 Ethan Laidlaws and when they all inevitably get let go at 20/21 they have 0 first team appearances, or they've had one loan move to a Newport County or a York City that they've got to shine in.

Last season would have been a good time to go on loan, but the European campaign meant none of them could until they were eliminated by Dortmund. I would have liked to have seen him get some minutes when he was on the bench seeing as he never did go out on loan when the rest of them all did at the end of the season, but if lack of minutes in the first team after just turning 18 is purely the reason why he's away then in all honesty I'm okay with that.

LJ had his faults but perhaps refused to being held to ransom by a young laddie and his agent wasn't one of them.

[Fergus52]

I don’t think LJ had us anywhere near 3rd place .
But it wasent the fact ETHAN , or others weren’t playing, they didn’t even make the match squad , there was no encouragement for the youth squad.
Molotnikov and landers are not ready to play a big part in the current hibs team,
However you can bet the current under 18s, will be more motivated under monty than LJ.

I'm not one to defend Johnson, but 5 points is pretty near tbh.

We easily could have had 5 more points when you list all the times the refs/VAR ****ed us over last season.

[TheGog]

Same as what happened to Kane O’Connor. Back up the road and at Tranent juniors

[Paulie Walnuts]

I'm not one to defend Johnson, but 5 points is pretty near tbh.

We easily could have had 5 more points when you list all the times the refs/VAR ****ed us over last season.

5 points is near in some regard, but was that not pretty much as close as we got?

We were maybe near by the end of the season but I think you’d be hard pushed to say we were challenging for it. Getting no closer than 5 points and for the vast majority of the season being much more than that behind isn’t competing for me and I think it could be argued one way or another whether it constitutes being near as well.

[TrinityHFC]

5 points is near in some regard, but was that not pretty much as close as we got?

We were maybe near by the end of the season but I think you’d be hard pushed to say we were challenging for it. Getting no closer than 5 points and for the vast majority of the season being much more than that behind isn’t competing for me and I think it could be argued one way or another whether it constitutes being near as well.
We were pretty much a missed penalty kick v Aberdeen away from third place so of course we were challenging for it.

[Paulie Walnuts]

We were pretty much a missed penalty kick v Aberdeen away from third place so of course we were challenging for it.

We were 5 points behind? The missed penalty kick wouldn’t have given us 5 points..

I’m sure Aberdeen and Hearts can also point to missed opportunities/penalties that could have put them further ahead as well.

[NAE NOOKIE]

He buggered off as was his right. He barely kicked a ball for the Hibs first team, if at all. He possibly should have, but he never did.

Because of that I seriously have nothing invested in how he is getting on other than would we get some money if he was to get a first team game for Brentford or if he was to become a Scotland international at which time he would have my full attention.

That aside I seriously never give the guy a second thought.

[Chorley Hibee]

We were 5 points behind? The missed penalty kick wouldn’t have given us 5 points..

I’m sure Aberdeen and Hearts can also point to missed opportunities/penalties that could have put them further ahead as well.

It would have given Aberdeen a point less and us two points more, meaning that a win over Hearts on the final day could have got us third.

I agree with your last paragraph though.