Dan Cook has insisted on the HLTCO podcast that clubs showing an interest in Crystal Palace youngster Junior Dixon is ‘fantastic’.
While some may well see this as a strange stance to take on clubs such as Borussia Dortmund looking to prise away a Crystal Palace youth star, the logic behind it is quite sound as it shows the scouting and coaching Palace are doing at youth level is of top quality.
Dixon has been tearing things up for Palace’s Under 18s with seven goals and two assists in just five appearances so it’s only natural that some bigger clubs will have him on their radars, although one club that could certainly offer him a great chance to develop is Dortmund given what they’ve done over the years with young players such as Jadon Sancho and Jude Bellingham.
Cook though isn’t worried about Dixon’s future and instead is taking this interest as a positive thing for Palace.
(8:05) “I for one would love to see Junior Dixon stay at Crystal Palace, progress into the Under 21s continue to find the back of the net with regularity and then hopefully go on to become a key cog in Patrick Vieira’s first team in the fullness of time but we will have to wait and see.
“Either way, as much as you can look toward this story with a degree of trepidation because of the reputation that Borussia Dortmund have within the European game I think it’s fantastic to see our young players being linked with clubs like that because it shows the recruitment we’re doing at a very young age and the coaching we’re giving these young lads is working and long may that continue.”
Will Palace finish inside the top 10?
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TIF Thoughts on interest in Dixon…
Indeed, it is a sign that Palace are getting things right all the way through the club if their young players are attracting interest from big European sides before they have even come close to making a stamp on the first team.
While the glamour and thought of playing infront of the famous Yellow Wall at the Signal Iduna Park could be tempting for Dixon, there would appear no reason to jump ship at the moment given the clear pathway Palace have in place to the first team for their young players.
Dixon only has to look at the likes of Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Tyrick Mitchell and Jesrurun Rak-Sakyi over the last few years who’ve been handed first-team minutes by Patrick Vieira as to why staying at Selhurst Park is the best place for his development.