SOUTTAR CAN HIT THE HEIGHTS, ADMITS FORMER CITY FAVOURITE
CLINT Hill laughs when he’s asked what he actually taught Harry Souttar during a season-and-a-half at Fleetwood Town.
A long-term loan in League One has been like a finishing school for Souttar, now aged 21 and earning rave reviews as he breaks into the first team at Stoke City.
It was the chance of regular senior football while taken under the wing of Hill, the Fleetwood coach and a former Stoke favourite himself who Souttar says showed him “the things he didn’t necessarily know as a defender”.
So what was it?
“Probably the dark arts if I’m being honest!” admits Hill. “The little pulls, the little body checks that help you get an advantage over a striker.
“When we got Soutts back for the second loan we wanted him to start using his body and his physique to dominate not just strikers, but games. We felt he could do that – and we wanted to get his voice going as well, which is vital.
“He just grew in confidence. You have to truly dominate the centre forward you’re playing against and he took it on. It’s fair to say he was one of the best defenders in League One last season.”
It is no secret or surprise that Hill, pictured, and manager Joey Barton would have loved Souttar back this season.
But they knew their role was to speed his development and they were confident that when he headed back to Stoke to work with Michael O’neill that he was ready for the step up, even if he would encounter fierce competition.
Hill said: “The first year he came in he needed to play games. It was great for both parties. We wanted someone young, athletic and hungry and he stepped straight into role. We were there to support him. As a young player you’re going to have ups and downs and we could be that network underneath.
“As a staff, when he finished that second season we thought he was at least ready to try to become a Championship player. We told him he needed to go back to Stoke, step into that shirt and make it his own. “We knew there were seven or eight centre-halves at Stoke and they are all good players in their own right who have done it at that level or above. But we were confident.
“He’d done it at League One and thankfully he’s taken to it in the Championship like a duck to water.” Souttar joined Stoke’s youth team in 2016 from Dundee United and headed back to Scotland for a loan spell at Ross County the following season.
That was where he caught the eye of Hill, who had been playing in that division for Rangers a season previously.
“The first thing you see with Soutts is his size,” he said.
“I spotted him at Ross County. I remember watching a Sky game, seeing this big lad who stands out straight away and you start looking at other things. Technically he’s very good, he can step out and pass, he’s got the diagonals. I was thinking ‘this kid’s got good potential’.
“Then we got the job at Fleetwood he stuck in my mind, thought we should try our luck and luckily enough we got him.”
The door is open at Fleetwood for more Stoke youngsters to hone their craft although Nathan Collins, who has also been underlined in Hill’s little black book, is not available as O’neill challenges him to get into the Stoke first team.
There’s a salary cap in League One too which is another obstacle to overcome.
But Souttar is evidence of how the system can work and the Championship is just the next step.
“He can go as far as he wants,” said Hill. “His drive, his mentality and the more he matures the higher he can go. He’s taken his chance at Stoke but he needs to keep doing it.”