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By CALUM CROWE Published: 04: 11 AEDT, 14 January 2026 | Updated: 04: 14 AEDT, 14 January 2026 View comments Good luck to young Keir Mc Meekin. When he completes his move from Hearts to Manchester City later this year, he will have a life-changing opportunity at one of the biggest clubs in world football. Nobody in their right mind would begrudge him that chance. Nor will anyone think any less of him, despite the fact he has yet to make any appreciable impact at first-team level. Given the same chance at 16 years old, we would all do the same thing if a club like Man City came calling. Of course we would. He also had strong interest from Man United and Liverpool. Mc Meekin doesn’t actually turn 16 until next month, but it’s expected that he will see out the rest of the season with Hearts before joining City in the summer after the clubs agreed a compensation package. A midfielder held in the highest regard by everyone at Tynecastle, it was only a matter of time until Mc Meekin broke through into the first-team setup. Speak to anyone at Hearts, and they all rave about the talent of the boy who has already been capped for Scotland at Under-17 level. Teenager Keir Mc Meekin has yet to make an appreciable impact on Hearts' first team but is set to join Manchester City in the summer Talented midfielder Mc Meekin can't be blamed for becoming the latest Scottish teenager to run when English heavyweights come calling Not every Scottish youngster makes a name for himself after going south,   one of the notable exceptions being Andy Robertson of LIverpool He could go all the way to the very top. He will also carry the very best wishes of everyone back home. It’s an inherently Scottish trait that we take huge pride in seeing one of our own go down south or abroad and make a success of themselves. Just look at what’s happened with the likes of John Mc Ginn and Andy Robertson in the English Premier League, or Scott Mc Tominay and Billy Gilmour and their title-winning heroics at Napoli. Anyone who tunes in to TNT Sports’ coverage of Serie A would doubtless have been rooting for Napoli last weekend in their top-of-the-table clash with Inter Milan, with Mc Tominay scoring both goals in a 2-2 draw. Ben Gannon-Doak is another young Scot who flew the nest at an early age, and his talents were at such a level they propelled him into the senior national team before he had even really established himself with his club. But while everyone will hope that Mc Meekin can go on to fulfil his potential and reach that same sort of level, the news of his move to City is also another nail in the coffin of the Scottish academy system. All the top academies in the SPFL are now little more than feeder pathways to clubs in the English Premier League. Clubs in Scotland can’t hang on to their best young players for long enough to command a proper transfer fee. Most Scots kids would dream of making even the same kind of impact as Ben Gannon-Doak, who has starred for his country despite not always playing at club level in England And the reasons for this talent drain can be very easily distilled into just one word: Brexit. Previously, when the UK was still part of the European Union, it was common for English clubs to scour the continent for the best young players. Two of the more high-profile examples would be Cesc Fabregas joining Arsenal at 16 and Paul Pogba signing for Manchester United at the same age. These deals would no longer be possible. Since Britain left the EU, clubs can’t sign players under 18 from overseas. Even once they reach that age, there is still a complicated process to go through in order to gain a work permit. All of which has changed the landscape of how EPL clubs recruit young talent. English clubs will now often employ several full-time scouts in Scotland. Cheap cross-border deals are common as they look to populate their academies. Hearts starlet Mc Meekin is going to Manchester City, but will it be the best move for him? A market they wouldn’t ordinarily have looked at, the SPFL becomes easy pickings. The development fees and compensation packages are often negligible. Scottish clubs are not blind to this. They recognise the threat posed. They are fed up nurturing these young players, only to have them poached away as soon as they turn 16. There have been moves to try to combat this, and attempts to change the rules so they are more in favour of the SPFL clubs who have spent time and resources on these boys from a young age. There is a legal loophole that Scottish clubs have tried to use to their advantage, by getting young players to agree to contracts which expire in the December after their 16th birthday. Under current rules, players can’t move to England until the end of their Under-16 season, so this overlap is intended to prevent clubs from being able to sign them during the summer when their contract expires. But nothing has stuck so far. The opportunity that these young players are being offered by clubs like Man City and the likes are simply too great to be turned down. Mc Meekin is just the latest in a long line of young players who have moved on to bigger and more glamorous surroundings before establishing themselves at first-team level. Liam Morrison and Barry Hepburn both opted to swap Celtic for the bright lights of Bavaria with Bayern Munich. Rory Wilson joined Aston Villa from Rangers, but has yet to see a single minute of senior football for the English side despite now being 20 years old Rory Wilson left Rangers to join Aston Villa a few years back in a very similar sort of move to that of Mc Meekin. The list of players who have followed a similar path in recent years is extensive. Brodie Dair (St Johnstone to Fulham), AJ Doyle (Celtic to Derby County), Rocco Friel (Hearts to QPR). Ceiran Loney (Partick Thistle to Everton). Charlie Mc Arthur (Kilmarnock to Newcastle). Alfie Hutchison (Rangers to Newcastle). Can any of these boys say, for sure, that they definitely made the right move? Morrison is now playing with QPR in the English Championship, while Hepburn has fallen out of professional football altogether. Wilson has recently been made available for loan by Villa and is yet to see a single minute of senior football despite now being 20 years old. He has been with the club for nearly four years. Most of the others are still young enough to try and make a go of it. But the number of young Scots who leave the SPFL via this route and go on to make it is not encouraging. Brexit has undoubtedly been a game-changer. But clubs also need to look in the mirror and ask what they can do better to retain their top young talents. Perhaps if there was a clearer - and more accelerated - pathway to first-team football these young players wouldn’t be so quick to jump ship. In August 2024, a report from the SFA concluded that our clubs are failing young players by not giving them enough minutes in comparison to other countries and leagues of similar stature. Liam Morrison was tipped for big things after leaving Celtic for Bayern Munich as a youngster, and is now playing with QPR in English Championship Barry Hepburn made the same move from Celtic to Bayern Munich, and is shown above during a subsequent loan spell with Queens's Park There have been moves to rectify that. Just last week, another report found that young players have seen their opportunities at senior level increase by almost 50 per cent this season. Key to this has been the new co-operation system, providing increased flexibility for players in the ‘transition phase’ of 16-21 to move between their parent club and a ‘co-op’ club throughout the campaign. The KDM Evolution Trophy was given a new format by the SPFL that includes Premiership B teams in a league phase format. But the number of Premiership clubs in Scotland bringing through top academy prospects of their own remains very thin on the ground. Until that changes, and until such times as these young players can see a clear pathway, nobody can blame them for moving down south. Even if very few of them actually make it.

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