Agreed Yorky. I'd been going to Fir Park for decades and, initially from what I saw of him, I'd rate him as being potentially one of our most talented youngsters in perhaps 30 years, if not more. If it had been up to me I'd have given him a 4 year contract without hesitation. However, I began to have doubts when, much to the annoyance of quite a few fans, managers seemed reluctant to give him game time. When he was given game time he looked fantastic but with little or no end product. Thats why I'm not a football manager or coach.
I can recall during the dark days of administration Terry Butcher addressed a meeting of fans at Fir Park and was taking "polite" pelters, as you would with him, about why he preferred Paul Quinn to a seemingly far better and much more talented Willie Kinninburgh. He replied that Quinn would go much further in the game than Kinninburgh and whilst Coach never hit the heights, big Terry was proved right.
So, don't judge the club too harshly. Assessing young players is very difficult and there's much more to it than just possessing talent.