Town boss Mick McCarthy believes 18-year-old midfielder Teddy Bishop fully deserves the new contract he signed last week, but says the club are careful not to give young players too much, too soon.
Bishop signed a new deal which secures him to the Blues until June 2018 with Town having an option for a further season.
"What’s nice about [owner] Marcus [Evans] is that we’ve signed the kids,” McCarthy said. "They’re not getting massive deals, they have to earn them, but when they do earn them they get their just rewards, which is nice.
"It can ruin youngsters if it goes soaring too high too soon. Bish has been great. He’s been excellent in everything he’s done and it’s just rewards for him and it’s great for us because we’ve got him on a long contract.”
He’s confident that the youngster will be up to the physical and mental rigours of the Championship run-in.
"Of course,” he insisted. "When you’re 18, I think that mental bit, do you ever think about it? I didn’t. I just played. I didn’t know why I was playing well, didn’t know why I was playing bad except when you’re playing bad everybody else can tell you why. They don’t tell you when you’re playing well.
"Bish has done nothing other than play well since he came in. I think the older you get you start to think about it more. When you’re younger you’re just playing football and he’s a good footballer.”
McCarthy says defender Matt Clarke, also 18, has been unlucky not to play more often than his start in the Capital One Cup at Crawley and his brief sub appearances at Millwall and against Birmingham on Tuesday, his home debut.
"Clarkey’s been in and around the first team but our defenders have been solid and he’s not got a chance or he would have played. I would have played him if we’d got injuries.”
Academy first-year scholar Kundai Benyu, 17, also signed a new contract last week, until the summer of 2017, and McCarthy says the central midfielder is likely to break into a matchday 18 at some point soon having travelled with the squad to Brighton.
"Kundai has been in the squad and trained with us today,” he added. "I fancy that he will get in the squad at some stage as well.
"It’s lovely to see them coming through the academy. It’s great for Bryan Klug and his staff because when they’re not coming through everyone’s questioning when the next one’s coming and asking why we haven’t got any young ‘uns coming through.
"It’s fairly cyclical. It could be a 10-year cycle that you get some and then you don’t. But I think when they do come through it breathes a breath of fresh air into the club.”