Partick Thistle assistant manager Scott Paterson says he is surprised that it has taken other clubs so long to recognise the talent of young defender Liam Lindsay.

The 21-year-old is reportedly attracting the interest of Leeds United, and Paterson has no doubts that Lindsay could handle the move to English football if it presented itself.

Equally though, he has no fears over the ability of his player to blank out the speculation and concentrate on his performances for Thistle in the here and now.

And while Paterson fully expects Lindsay to move on from the club if he keeps improving at the same rate, he urged a note of caution about the timing of his departure so that he doesn’t harm his development.

“I think Liam has had a great start to the season, and it helps that he’s scoring goals as well,” Paterson said. “That’s always something extra that teams will take notice of.

“First and foremost he’s a defender though, and in every game he plays he’s getting more experienced and he is getting better and better.

“I’m a bit surprised that it’s taken so long for clubs to be noticing him. He’s at that age where clubs down south will try to get players in so they can develop them.

“He’s taking it all in his stride though. It’s always good when players are getting recognised for what they are doing on the pitch, he’s a level-headed lad and he won’t get carried away.

“He’ll just carry on doing what he is doing and if anything happens then it happens.

“He’s still a Partick Thistle player and he’s got to just let his football do the talking and not get distracted by anything that’s happening.

“It’s entirely up to the lad himself what he does, if any player has ambition then they want to go on to bigger and better things.

“It all comes down to timing if a move is going to work out for you, but if Liam decides to move on then he’ll go with our best wishes.

“A lot of players go down south and they get lost to the game, so it is important for somebody like Liam to make sure he is making the right move for himself, because you don’t want to go from playing week-in week-out in the first team up here to maybe being stuck in a development team.

“Players have to make their own decisions for their own career though, and I’m sure Liam will.”

The Thistle players will face Belgian side Lokeren in a friendly today as they round off a productive winter training camp in La Manga.

Paterson says that the players and the management team owe a debt of gratitude to the club for finding the money to give them the best possible platform for success in the second half of the season.

“It’s been great, the complex that we’re in is top notch,” he said. “It’s a fantastic facility and everything about it is great. The pitches are superb and the weather helps as well. It’s not too hot, so it’s been good to some good work in.

“We’ve been able to fit in a lot of good sessions when the weather back home isn’t the best and we would probably have been struggling to get somewhere to train.

“We can’t thank the club enough. They’ve always tried to help us and they always try to support us, and it’s really appreciated by us and the players as well.

“We know that times are tough, and we’ve been trying to make the best use of it as we can.”

The trip to Spain has certainly not been a holiday for the Thistle management team, who continue to work on possible reinforcements to their squad while they put their existing players through their paces.

“We’re always looking to add to the squad and especially at this time of year,” Paterson added.

“It’s got to be the right player to better us, we won’t be bringing players in for the sake of it.

“We’re looking at loan deals in the main just because of the time of year, but if the right permanent deal comes up we’re open to that as well.”