Ethan Sutherland has completed a £300k move to Wolverhampton Wanderers.
The St Mirren academy graduate made the switch to the Premier League club just days after his Scottish Premiership debut. He will link up with the Wolves under-21 squad.
Sutherland, 18, had been involved in the first-team environment for a prolonged period at St Mirren and featured on the bench in all four UEFA Conference League qualifying matches this season.
However, the player has decided to move on from the Paisley club despite a desire from officials to tie down the winger on a longer deal.
Sutherland was out of contract at St Mirren next summer leaving a decision between losing him for a cross-border compensation fee or cashing in now.
An initial bid of £250k from Wolves had been rejected by St Mirren but a deal was struck after further talks for a fee in the region of £300k with incentivised add-ons included making a significant increase on the fee possible.
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The player - who has also played at left-back - caught the attention of Premier League clubs while on loan at Alloa last season with Chelsea and Manchester City credited with interest.
Stephen Robinson said of the deal: "Ethan made it clear he wasn’t going to sign with us at the end of the season so it would have been a compensation package.
"You’re always at the mercy of these bigger clubs. It’s a brilliant move for him to a fantastic club and Wolves have got a player with a lot of potential.
"When I first came into the club there were people thinking twice about keeping him on but with his ability and raw talent it was imperative that we kept him and developed him. It’s credit to the academy staff and now the first team staff that have strengthened him. We wish him nothing but good luck.
"Unfortunately, that’s the nature of the game. You lose a lot of good young players at this age. It’s part of the model of the football club. We sell players, we bring the next players through.
"We’ve worked very hard at putting structures in place in the academy that these players are coming physically and mentally ready and we’re starting to see the fruit of that with Fraser Taylor and Luke Kenny as well Kieran Offord and Lewis Jamieson out on loan. These players are being put out for the reason that we bring them back next season and they play a large part of our first-team squad."
Head of international youth recruitment at Wolves Harry Hooman commented: “Naturally, with his loan last year and playing first-team football as a 17-year-old, he's been on the radar of a lot of clubs. We’ve had to keep on top of it, move quickly, and I think he's recognised that as well in terms of all the work that we've done on him.
“He had that exposure on loan last year, but then has been around the first-team group all pre-season and made his debut at the weekend. He’s played in pre-season games with the first-team and been on the bench in the Europa Conference League. That taste of first-team football probably means he has a little bit more experience than maybe some of our 18-year-olds, so hopefully that stands him in good stead.
“He will go into the 21s group, initially settle and develop with James (Collins) and Ian Sharps. There are lots of competitions this year for the 21s, so we have lots of different challenges across the season, whether it's league games, International Cup games, EFL Trophy games against senior opposition.
“It will be a really good development year for him and hopefully he progresses and keeps improving over the next couple of years.
“We look all across the UK, Europe and internationally now. We're always on top of players that are developing well up in Scotland. We've got a part-time scout based up there, Gary Anderson, so whenever we do go up, he's got a really good understanding of the key players we're monitoring and keeping a close eye on.”
