Lewis Stevenson loving Hibs call by Nick Montgomery that takes 'b****' amid depressing statistic
The defender is loving the fact his new boss is not afraid to rail against a growing trend.
Lewis Stevenson insists Scottish football needs a radical rethink so fortune can favour the brave for clubs prepared to blood youngsters.
The Hibs defender believes the fear factor created by a 12 club Premiership is stifling the flow of teenage talent but praised his own boss Nick Montgomery for having the b**** to buck the trend. Rudi Molotnikov, Josh Landers, Rory Whittaker have all made a first team breakthrough the season despite still being eligible for the under-19s and Stevenson is convinced they all have the required mindset to cope with facing Celtic tonight.
He said: "It takes b**** from the manager to put them in there. We have a tight squad this season and it probably helps the board that the manager has shown that he will play these young boys and they have done well. You need self-belief but you also can't afford to get too carried away. You still want them to show their own personality as you don't want them to be robots. It's a different world now with social media and that wasn't there when I was coming through.
"I'm always here if anyone wants to ask questions and give little bits of advice. That could be about players I have played against as I know what they like to do. You don't want to fill their heads with too much as they need to focus on the game and learn things for themselves.
"The maturity and confidence they have already is remarkable. They physically need to grow a bit but that will come in due time."
A check across the Premiership landscape shows all of our clubs are reluctant to throw in young players with just two Scottish under-12 kids starting in the round of fixtures before last weekend and Stevenson admits it shows an unhealthy aspect of our game.
He said: "It's a depressing statistic and it shows Scottish football is all about results. Maybe when you get to the end of the season and some teams have less things to play for then they can start bleeding in the young boys.
"Because the league is quite small and then there is the split, everyone is playing for something. There is not that luxury of throwing young players in as there is a fear. To be fair to our gaffer, he has shown a lot of confidence in the youngsters even during a really tight period in the season.
"Every point is massive yet he's still willing to put the young boys in. It's frustrating that clubs would rather play a boy from England or someone foreign at that age rather than using the young players who are already there.
"It's not a good stat but maybe we could look at restructuring as a bigger league would give clubs more of a chance to blood youngsters as every point may not be as important as it is now.
"That time during Covid was maybe a good time to restructure the league but it's tough as it's a business at the end of the day. Why would a team want to have less games? That is the state of Scottish football for young boys coming through it has been tough."
The 35-year-old was part of the last Hibs side to deliver a win at Celtic Park and the fact he has to cast his mind back to a 2-1 success in 2010 is proof for the stalwart just how tough it's going to be to claim three points against the champions this evening.
He said: "We have been close a few times and there have been some really good performances. When Neil Lennon was in charge we went there twice and were probably the better side but it shows just how hard it is.
"It's still a game that we all look forward to and we have real belief but we need to buck the trend. No matter how we win, we need to find a way to do that."