Blues boss Paul Jewell says prospective signing Murray Wallace will benefit from returning to Falkirk once he has decided which club to join for the longer term. Town, Brighton, Huddersfield and probably other clubs have agreed a fee of £300,000 plus add-ons for the 19-year-old central defender, who was at the club for talks yesterday.
Jewell confirmed that part of the deal agreed with the Scottish League Division One club is that Wallace will rejoin them on loan until the end of the season: "I think that’s what’s going to happen wherever he goes.
"But I think that will be beneficial to the player. He’s not quite ready to play Championship football yet, but I think he will be, he just needs developing.
"I think he’ll develop more playing against men, it’s a tough league that he’s playing in. He played against Celtic [on Sunday], which will probably be the toughest game he’s ever played in and he’ll learn more.”
The Town manager admits that the Blues face strong competition for the one-time Rangers trainee, who held talks with Brighton last week and will speak with other clubs in the days to come. He says Town put no pressure on him to come to a quick decision: "There are a few in for him, whether we get him is debatable but we’d like to.
"We’ve shown him around and it’s up to the lad. You don’t want to rush the lad, he’s only a young boy and he wants to make the right decision and I respect that.
"Sometimes you’ve got to say ‘Look, I need a decision now’, but I think with this young lad, if we forced him into something it wouldn’t be quite right.”
Jewell says he and his scouts have been impressed with the talent on show north of the border, having signed Ryan Stevenson from Hearts over the weekend: "Years ago every top team had two or three Scots in it but then there seemed to be a bit of a barren spell, but I think they’re coming back. I don’t know why that is, but certainly we’ve been impressed with what we’ve seen up in Scotland.”
The likes of Gary Teale and Lee McCulloch were vital members of Jewell’s Wigan side and he says his acquisitions from Scottish football have generally done well for him, including a certain ex-Town and Latics centre-half: "I got Jason De Vos from Dundee United, even if he wasn’t exactly Scottish, he was a good signing for us. Most of the Scots have done well for me.”