Dundee United wonderkid Ryan Gauld is determined to prove that Tannadice’s conveyor belt of talent is working as efficiently as ever by emulating some of his team-mates in the coming years.
The 17-year-old has belied his age by breaking into the United first team and has managed to nail down a starting jersey in the last five games, although the midfielder knows he has some hard work ahead of him to stay ahead in the pecking order.
Having said that though, Gauld believes working with the likes of Gary Mackay-Steven and Stuart Armstrong two of the nominees for PFA Scotland’s Young Player of the Year this weekend can only stand him in good stead, and what he wouldn’t give to follow in their footsteps.
“Hopefully I can be where they are in a few years time,” he told Courier Sport.
“Obviously they’ve been fantastic this season, both of them have been outstanding since the start, and if I’m where they are in a couple of years I’d be happy.
“It’s been a dream getting five starts in a row. It wasn’t really expected but I’ll take it. It’s come quite quickly for me and I’ll just deal with things as they happen.”
Gauld and fellow teenager John Souttar came to wider prominence for their performances in the Scottish Cup semi-final against Celtic, but both have been knocking on the first team door for some time.
The pair have been almost inseparable coming through the youth ranks and the ‘bromance’ is set to continue for a few years yet after they signed new contracts tying them to the club until January 2016.
For Gauld’s part, the presence of Souttar who is nine months younger in the team has probably taken some of the pressure off.
“It’s good for the both of us because we played at Brechin Boys Club together and we signed for United Under-9s at the same time,” he explained. “Now we’re making our breakthrough at the same time, so it’s been really good for the both of us.
“We’ve actually known each other since we were five or six. We didn’t go to the same primary school but we went to the same secondary school and we came down to training together every night, so I’ve been with him through everything.
“I couldn’t count how many games we’ve played in together probably too many!”
Gauld revealed he had been happy how things had been going for United in recent weeks until Friday night’s 1-0 defeat at Dingwall.
“It was a difficult game and with the conditions it made it difficult to get the ball down and pass it,” he continued.
“There wasn’t much grass on the pitch and that kind of stopped us playing a wee bit. Everyone knows we’re better when we get the ball down and pass, so it made it a lot harder for us.
“I think Europe might be a bit too far for us now but we’ve just got to keep playing and get a few wins. That’s three games in a row we’ve been beaten now, so we need to start getting results again.”
Gauld scored his first senior goal for United against St Johnstone just over a month ago and he would love to add to that tally in the run-in.
Ironically, Saints are the visitors to Tannadice on Saturday afternoon and fans will be hoping lightning will strike twice.
But Gauld concluded: “I don’t really care who it’s against, if I can get the goals I’d be happy.”