ROLE MODELS

Hearts’ new signing Ashley Smith-brown hopes he can replicate the success of the former Celtic loan player Patrick Roberts after watching his Manchester City teammate become a hero at Parkhead.

Roberts dazzled during his 18 months in Scotland, scoring 17 goals, making 21 assists and earning widespread plaudits last term, in particular, as Brendan Rodgers’ rampant side secured an unprecedented invincible treble.

Those stunning performances came as no surprise to Smith-brown, who – as well as being a City colleague – played alongside the waspish winger in the England youth ranks, regularly going directly up against him in training sessions.

The 21-year-old wing-back says Roberts’ success was in his thoughts when he made the decision to sign a seasonlong loan deal with Hearts.

“I played with Patrick Roberts at England youth levels before he went to Manchester City and he has gone on to achieve really good things with Celtic,” said Smithbrown, who is set to make his Hearts debut against St Patrick’s Athletic in Dublin tonight.

“He is a great example for me to come up here and give Scottish football a try. I was keeping tabs on what Pat was doing at Celtic and he was making a good name for himself. It proved that this is a good 0 Ashley Smith-brown has made sparkling progress in the Manchester City youth ranks. Inset, he arrives at Tynecastle.

ASHLEY SMITH-BROWN league, with good recognition. Hopefully I can do something similar. Seeing Pat do well at Celtic certainly influenced my decision.

“I remember playing with Pat for England, and he was playing in the year above his age group, but he was still one of our main players. He was so skilful and a real threat.

“We had a few good battles and I got near him – sometimes – in training… but I’m glad he has left Celtic now!”

Smith-brown is yet to turn out for Manchester City’s senior side, but arrives in Gorgie boasting a sparkling apprenticeship. On City’s books since the age of five, he was formerly the captain of their under-18 side which won the league title in 2013-14 and was afforded the opportunity to pit his wits against superstars such as Sergio Aguero, David Silva and Gael Clichy in training under former manager Manuel Pellegrini.

The versatile defender stepped up his development last season when he claimed promotion from the Dutch second tier with NAC Breda, and he has not given up hope of one day making the grade

“It was good to train alongside Sergio Aguero, David Silva and Gael Clichy. They make so few mistakes and their decisionmaking is second to none”