He was Scottish football’s next big thing. A kid from Carfin who was likened to Gareth Bale, and who convinced then Rangers manager and Liverpool icon Steven Gerrard that he ‘would definitely improve his team’.
Some youngsters burst onto the first team scene, but when Jake Hastie made his breakthrough at Motherwell, he exploded onto it.
The young winger was given a debut as a 17-year-old at Celtic Park under Mark McGhee, but it wasn’t until a couple of seasons and two loan spells had passed under the bridge that he really started to catch the eye, and attracted one or two of those rather hysterical headlines.
Under the guidance of Stephen Robinson, he would even command the spotlight from exciting contemporaries like David Turnbull and Allan Campbell for a short, scintillating spell.
“I was flying,” Hastie said.
“When you're a young boy, especially when you've been through the academy, it’s just amazing. Motherwell was brilliant all the way through, and especially to go right through it together with David, wee Al and James Scott and into the first team, it was incredible.
“Allan had been playing in the team for a while, and when you've been watching him in the games, you’re thinking that you want that as well. Then David got in and I just really wanted to get to that level too.
“With them breaking in after coming all the way through with me, it kept pushing me. I wanted to do that, just like them.
“So, when you get your opportunity, you just need to go and grab it with both hands. And I think I did that.
“I loved every minute of it.”
Ever since that burst of youthful brilliance, though, Hastie has been fighting against a narrative that those initial head-spinning weeks of his career will, in the end, represent the high point of his journey in the game. And, having now settled at Ayr United after bouncing around the British Isles, the notion that he has become something of a journeyman.
But let’s go back to those heady days when the football world seemed to open up before him.
With his contract expiring at Fir Park that summer, no less than 15 clubs from all around Europe put contracts in front of the then 19-year-old. One of which, was Rangers.
“Even at a younger age, we'd have teams like Rangers and Celtic trying to get us, and for me, it was particularly Rangers who were interested,” he said.
“I had 14 other clubs that made offers for me at that age. It's hard for somebody so young to make up their mind, especially when you're getting offers from clubs around Europe.
“It was good, of course, but I had to make a decision in a short space of time. Looking back, it was quite difficult. Especially as I loved it at Motherwell. That was the hard bit, trying to decide what I wanted to do.”
A large part of him wanted to stay put at Fir Park and tuck another 50 games under his belt. He cites the development of Lennon Miller now, you feel perhaps a little ruefully, as he reflects on the decision that lay before him.
“Whenever anybody asks me, young kids or dads who have come up to me and asked about the best place for their development, I always say that if they have the opportunity to go to Motherwell, go there,” he said.
“They have a pathway and they'll develop you not only into a good player, but a good person as well.
“It's a really good club. You see the likes of Lennon Miller coming through now, they've put in all that great work and he’s probably going to go for big money, and it's always good to see.
“Maybe I should have stayed longer, but it's a hindsight thing, isn't it? I probably feel, looking back now, if I'd maybe stayed for another season and just got as many games in as possible, I think it would maybe have developed me more.
“But as I say, that’s hindsight. When you speak to Rangers and then they put that contract down in front of you, it's difficult to turn down, especially at that age as well.
“You're just excited and you think to yourself, if I go and do well there, then who knows where I could be in the next few years, you know what I mean?
“It was a hard decision, but it's one I don't regret. I feel as if I've learned through it as well, and I enjoyed my experience at Rangers.”
It was also hard to say no to a figure like Gerrard, Hastie says, who made a huge effort to persuade him a bright future lay ahead for him at Ibrox.
“I ended up meeting Steven Gerrard three times with my mum and dad as well,” he said.
“In the end, it was really difficult to turn that opportunity down. But I was going up against the likes of Joe Aribo, who has gone on to play in the English Premier League, and Ryan Kent, who was probably one of the best wingers I've ever played with and watched playing as well. He was a top, top player.
“Actually, I talked to my dad, who has been a huge influence on my football career, about this about a year ago. He was wondering if I felt like I could maybe have done anything differently when I was there.
“When I was growing up, I was used to playing consistently. I went from consistently playing all the time to maybe not playing as much when I first went in there. Then that's when you start to question yourself a wee bit.
“It was always going to be hard. I knew that myself. It was always going to be hard to go in there and adjust from when you're used to playing consistently week in, week out.
“But listen, it was a good experience. I enjoyed it. You learn off good professionals every day and you learn how and why they play at that level consistently week in, week out.
“I went in there and I wasn’t playing, and then I was sent out on loan, and that probably knocked my confidence a wee bit.”
Confidence that he is only now really starting to be restored under the tutelage of Scott Brown at Somerset Park.
Hastie has shown in bursts glimpses of the player who so excited Scottish football in his younger years, scoring three in his first three games for Rotherham amid a series of hit and miss loan spells at the likes of Partick Thistle, Linfield and back at Motherwell, before impressing again under Paul Hartley at Hartlepool after eventually leaving Ibrox on a permanent deal.
When his partner fell pregnant, though, Hastie craved a move closer to home, accepting a loan spell at Hamilton Accies last January – something that further rankled with some among the Motherwell support who still hadn’t forgiven him for his move to Rangers.
“Aye, they didn’t like that either!” he laughed.
“Towards the end of my first spell there a couple of fans weren't happy about my move to Rangers and stuff, you know what it's like, but that’s just football sometimes. Every fan's entitled to their opinion.
“But I loved the club, I loved every minute of it.”
And now, finally, he is loving every minute of his football career once more with the Honest Men, under a couple of men in Brown and Steven Whittaker who would no doubt draw approval from Scotland’s national bard for their forthright manner.
“I think everybody needs that now and again,” Hastie said.
"But the gaffer just gives you that platform to go and play. The way he wants to play, it's good football, but there is an intensity to it which suits my game down to a tee.
“I always say if my work rate is good then usually the rest of it takes care of itself, so he's been really good to me.
“I think confidence is massive for me. Maybe that’s what I’ve lacked at times. Over the years sometimes you have highs and you have lows, and the older you get you realise you just need to never get too high or never get too low and just find balance and just consistently work hard.
“I feel like now this is probably the best shape physically and mentally that I've been in for a for a long time so I'm really enjoying it.
“At a young age, I've had quite a lot of loans. I'm 25 now and I feel as if that's me just starting to settle somewhere.
“I'm enjoying it, and I'm pushing as hard as I can for a consistent place in the team now. The boys have been doing really well but I’m somewhere, especially under Scott and Steven, where you feel as if every day you're getting better.
“Training's brilliant with the two of them, the information they give you is really good, and I feel as if I'm starting to really pick up again.
“I feel as though now I'm starting to really get my confidence back and I'm in a very good place.”
Does he believe then that one day he could be in an even better place, and fulfil the potential that everyone who witnessed his stunning start in the professional game thought he had?
“Definitely, 100 percent,” he said.
“You learn a lot as you go on, especially when you look back and you reflect on things. Maybe I should have done things differently here and there, and now I’ve learned that maybe if I do certain things that they can help me in my game, like I will go and do extras maybe three times a week at night.
“I've kept working away and I've kept my head down, and I've got no doubts in my ability. I have always said that, no doubts whatsoever.
“I can definitely get myself back up to the levels. My confidence is higher now. And when your confidence is higher you get back to believing in yourself and you feel good about yourself, and you want to help the team as much as you can.
“That's more important, that's the big thing as well for me now, it's not just about you as an individual. You help the team, and the rest will follow.”
For those still following Hastie's career, it seems there may just be, at last, some cause for optimism once more.
