Hibs rising star: 'I haven't signed new deal just to sit on the bench - and I know gaffer believes in me.'

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Teenage talent taking place in first team after early nerves

If the deal was something of a no-brainer for both parties, it still had to be considered. Before Rudi Molotnikov made the easiest decision of his fledgling footballing career, he needed just the tiniest bit of reassurance.

The teenager, who put pen to paper on a new four-year contract just before Hogmanay, admitted: “I wouldn't just sign if I knew I was just going to sit on the bench and not play at all. That's what the gaffer said to me, he said that we believe in you. The future is bright for me and that was a really big moment.

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“To be fair, it was quite an easy option. There's no-one else that I would feel is going to believe in me like the manager has. I love this club so I wouldn't see why I would change it for anything.”

An attacking midfielder built to cope with the physicality of the first team, Molotnikov was virtually a guaranteed starter at the beginning of the season. The 18-year-old has suffered a few setbacks since, with an injury keeping him out longer than expected, and he’s had to fight for game time.

But the youngster, who didn’t dare even join the first teamers for lunch until a couple of months into the current campaign, is confident in his ability to break through on a more permanent basis. A year on from making his first start in a Hibs jersey, in a Scottish Cup win away to Forfar, he’s expected to be involved when Clydebank visit Easter Road on Cup business this afternoon.

“Sometimes I still feel like I'm the young lad that's coming through,” he admitted, adding: “I wouldn't say I've proper bedded myself in this team yet, there's still a long way to go, but at the start of the season I felt really confident, and I still do. I've just got to get those minutes, get the fitness up and keep kicking on.

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“I moved into the first team dressing room maybe a couple of months after the start of the season. I was obviously in the academy at the start of the season, so it was weird going out to training and having lunch at the academy.

“Now I'm in the first team dressing room, it's really good. I mean, I was very nervous at first - but I sit next to Joe Newell and Dwight Gayle, so I couldn't pick two better people to be beside.

“Joe has been different than everyone else. As I said, I sit beside him, so every time I come in the morning he's there and he's just helped me massively on the field, off the field. He's made me understand football in a different way and he's been a good friend to me as well, which is what I needed.

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“He makes me understand that it's not all about playing football, it's about finding the space, knowing when your next pass is going to be. In the academy it's not as fast, you have time, but he was really bedding in that this is going to step up, this is where you need to prove yourself.

“Obviously the difference from academy football is pressure; the pressure is much bigger, but the speed of the play as well is massive. You have to move the ball so much quicker; you don't have time to scan so much more. Probably those things.

“The start of the season was massive. I don't think I would have had that contract at all if it wasn't for that. And it shows the belief that the club has in me, which is good.”

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