Michael Weir: Why a new Hibs deal for Josh Doig would benefit both club and player

It is rare to see a young player break into the first team and do as consistently well as Josh Doig has. But he seems to have a very bright future ahead of him.

Teenager Josh Doig has earned rave reviews since breaking into the Hibs first team this season. Photo by Ross MacDonald / SNS Group

That’s why Hibs are right to try to get him on a longer contract and I think he will see that as a good thing.

He has made a very good start to his career and Jack Ross deserves credit for that as well as he recognised when his form was starting to dip a bit and took him out of the side, gave him a rest and then reintroduced him and that experience and the way the situation was man-managed has helped Josh get better and better as the season has gone on.

It is exciting to see him make the breakthrough and he has shown a lot of character, because I know he was let go by Hearts when he was younger but he worked hard and proved that he wants to play football and improve as a player.

But he can’t get carried away. When there is talk of other clubs watching him, it is easy to get your head turned but he seems to be sensible and it looks like he has good people around him. They know that it has only really been seven or eight months since he got into the first team so he can afford to stay where he is for another season or two at least. He will still be young but the extra experience will do him so much good.

He has been brilliant this season and it will be good for him to hopefully play in front of a big support next year. But he can expect it to be a bigger challenge next season as other teams start to figure him out. They will know his strengths and they will work on ways to negate them but I think he has the right kind of character to rise to that challenge.

If things go the way we all hope he will also have European football to look forward to next season, which will give him the chance to face a different style of player, different tactics and test himself on a different level without having to leave Hibs.

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