Former Man Utd starlet revelling in return home with 'memories to treasure' - and more could be on way

Closer inspection reveals it was worn by Ethan Hamilton, who, a plaque adds, attended “JGHS 2010-2014”.

They are rightly proud of someone who continues to do it his own way. Now beginning to make some waves with Dundee, his alma mater could be awaiting the donation of a new jersey. A senior Scotland one perhaps? A Dundee cup-winning one?

Hamilton’s bid to obtain the latter item begins today at Kilmarnock. It is unusual for a notable Scottish footballer to make his debut in the Scottish Cup at the age of 27, but then Hamilton is far from your average Scottish footballer.

His pathway into the game was out of the ordinary for a start. Scouted by Manchester United at the age of 12, when Sir Alex Ferguson was still manager, his football development occurred under the auspices of the Old Trafford club while he continued playing, initially at least, for storied Edinburgh boys’ club Hutchison Vale.

As with hundreds of others, it did not quite happen for him at United. But it is happening for him now at Dundee, where he arrived at the end of August and has been wearing the captain’s armband of late in the absence of Simon Murray and Clark Robertson. He has missed only one game: against Motherwell last month on the weekend that he became a father. He reports that both daughter, Primrose, and Amelia, his partner, are doing well in their new house in South Queensferry. After so long in England and at the age of 27, he’s enjoying getting to know Scotland again and introducing himself to fans as a tough-tackling but artful box-to-box midfielder.

“It’s given me a new lease of life,” he says. “Nearly every week you are thinking, ‘This is something new’.”

He travels with the Dens Park side to face Kilmarnock this afternoon at Rugby Park, where former Hearts team-mates Steven Pressley and Neil McCann are pitched against each other. It continues Hamilton’s voyage of discovery. Not only has he not played in a Scottish Cup tie before, he’s never played at Rugby Park.

Voyage of discovery

The same applies to Ibrox, where he’s due next weekend when Dundee face Rangers and also, surprisingly, Hampden Park. Before he joined Manchester United, Hamilton had only played at two Scottish senior grounds – Tynecastle and Airdrie’s Excelsior Stadium for cup finals during his Hutchie days. “It’s funny, you have an image of what these football stadiums look like from watching on TV, to go and play on them has been really good,” he says. “Just funny things like getting used to the lights, things like that.”

Reaching the last four of the Scottish Cup would be a quick way of ensuring he makes a maiden appearance at Hampden, or else forcing his way into the Scotland squad. This is something Pressley has mentioned ought to be an ambition for the in-form midfielder.

Hamilton is clearly touched by his manager’s support. He is desperate to do as well as he can for someone who he says has garnered the respect of the entire squad. “He is a nice man and had that presence about him, you just enjoy being around him,” says Hamilton of Pressley. “He has been really good for me.”

As for any Scotland ambitions, Hamilton is cautious. “It’s not something I’ve thought about massively,” he says. “You’ve always had that dream as a youngster growing up. As long as you work as hard as you can, you can have no regrets.”

Scot Gemmill, now the Scotland Under-21 coach, was quoted as saying in 2015 while the Under-17s coach that it was a matter of when and not if Hamilton plays for the national team. As it happened, he didn’t even play for the Under-21s after making several Under-19s appearances.

There was a suggestion that going to England hadn’t helped, even if it was to a club like Manchester United. He lived an interesting double life when first connected to the club – raised in Edinburgh, he continued playing for Hutchie despite several attempts from Scottish clubs, including Aberdeen and Celtic, to lure him away.

He figured it gave him a better grounding. With what he estimates as around 275 senior games under his belt, for clubs including Accrington Stanley and Lincoln City, few could argue with this contention. He didn’t however make the breakthrough at United and was released during that summer of Covid in 2020 before being picked up by Peterborough United.

Being called up for an FA Cup squad against Huddersfield Town in Jose Mourinho’s time after Paul Pogba dropped out with illness was as near as he came to making a competitive appearance for Manchester United although he did replace Juan Mata in the second half of a friendly against AC Milan in LA. They are experiences that he says will stay with him for life.

The sliding doors moment

Everything might have been different had he walked away from Hutchie Vale aged five, as he initially wanted to do.

“I used to get so nervous with the older kids and stuff,” he recalls. “It got to the point where I was like, ‘mum I don’t know if I want to do this’.” She was sympathetic. She told him to tell the nice man Tam Smith, the club’s renowned leader, what he had just told her. “He got down on one knee and said, ‘But we really like having you here and we would love it if you would continue to come’. I replied: ‘Of course, I will continue to come!’”

It was a wise decision, if one governed by the fact, he says, that he was too scared to tell White anything different. John Thorburn , the United scout whose beat was the east coast, spotted Hamilton playing in 2010.

The eventual upshot was a relocation to Manchester for him and, in the first instance, his granny. “They were amazing times,” he recalls. “My grandpa would also come down and my mum later. It’s brilliant memories for them, of sitting in canteens and seeing players walking around… one time my uncle went down and was speaking to Darren Fletcher.” Fletcher of course made a similar journey from Hutchie to Old Trafford.

“I moved down at 15 and did one year of school down there,” explains Hamilton. “They call it the MANUSS programme – the Manchester United Schoolboy Scholars programme, I think it stands for. I did my education up here and then did ‘year 11’ down there. Some of the kids had been there since they were 12. I know I never made my first-team debut but everyone who has been in that system has that connection and the memories you make because of the tours you have been on and different parts of the world you’ve been to… People who haven’t made it at Manchester United or haven’t gone on to even have a football career, these are memories to treasure. They did really well down there in terms of giving young footballers experiences in life.”

He namechecks coaches such as Dave Bushell, who’s still working at the club in his 70s, Tony Whelan and Warren Joyce. Former Raith Rovers player Regan Hendry, now with Mansfield Town, was a contemporary while James Garner, now with Everton, played in the same team. He also trained with Marcus Rashford. And then there’s Scott McTominay, who is a couple of years older.

He leapt off his seat while watching on TV as his old pal scored with an overhead kick against Denmark in November. “He was just so dedicated,” he recalls. “He was maybe in the first team more before I left but before that he would always give advice to you. It’s great to see him doing so well.”

It’s also good to see Hamilton putting himself back in the public eye in Scotland. Note to James Gillespie High School: leave some more space on that wall.