Astley signs professional contract

And last week after the loss to Leicester U-23 Rhino said: "I'm so proud of him... He's come into the group, he's playing out of position at right-back – he's a centre-back really – and he's been terrific. He was excellent."

Arsenal was reportedly in for him, so we've done well to lock him in.

Quality signing.

All the noises coming out of Finch Farm speak extremely highly of this lad.

Still very, very young. Still plenty to go wrong, as other 'world beaters' at 16-17 have done in the past, losing their way and desire for the game.

Hopefully, with Brands' hand on the tiller, we are going to increasingly see more of this kind of talent and potential progress to our first team.

Maybe he won't make it, but it's good to see he's staying with us and not pursuing a career elsewhere. It puts a long-running saga to bed and comes after he stepped up a level. Let's hope he has some luck and fulfills that early promise.

Let's hope he's...

"Never gonna run around and desert us
Never gonna make us cry
Never gonna say goodbye
Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you"

Like most of them do... Haha!

Paul Young sang “Wherever I lay my hat”

It's RIck Astley they're on about!
😬

What are his strengths? A John Terry or Rio Ferdinand would be welcome.

I use Holgate and Galloway both of whom I rate highly but needed to grow into the role whilst physically still developing and somewhat lost their way being played out of position. I think by 25 or 26, both will be very good defenders, how good is the unknown.

As Brands has said, our strategy can only be based on bringing players through the academy, supplemented by signings. FFP prevents us simply going out and buying top players, so we must make the academy the engine room of the club's development strategy.

I just hope that if he ever does make it to the first team, our supporters give him lots of encouragement rather than losing patience at the first mistake.