Highly-rated young Dundee United defender Kerr Smith is being chased by Aston Villa, Courier Sport can reveal.
The 15-year-old centre-back has been attracting interest from a host of big English Premiership clubs in recent weeks – Manchester United and Everton among them.
But Villa are at the front of the queue and Smith is currently in Birmingham. He turns 16 in a couple of months, at which point he can sign his first professional contract.
Previously a central midfielder, he was converted into a central defender by United’s senior academy head coach Adam Asghar.
It turned out to be a wise move, with first team manager Micky Mellon quickly identifying his talent in the summer and giving him a game in the August friendly against Sheffield United, when Smith was up against veteran striker Billy Sharp.
United would obviously be disappointed to lose such a promising talent at a young age but haven’t given up hope of keeping him and even if he headed down south, with the likes of Lewis Neilson and Logan Chalmers making headlines as well, it would be another feather in the cap of academy director Andy Goldie and his staff and further enhance the growing reputation of the Tannadice youth set-up.