19 year-old Jack Collinson has been describing to whufc.com his experiences of taking over the captains armband for the reserve team last season.

The youngster was picked for the full Welsh international side based on Reserve team performances alone as he only made one start for the first team in the 07-08 season (and I personally think that his performances in that game did not warrant his substitution and I think that Curbs most definitely could have made more of an effort in getting him out on the pitch because he clearly has talent. I digress) said to the official site:

To captain the reserves was a great honour. I have really enjoyed captaining them and it helped me improve as a player and also off the pitch as well with the added responsibility. I am a player who thrives off that responsibility

He talks a lot in the article (which you can find HERE) about the influence and inspiration that Lucas Neill was to him in terms of his development as a player, but particularly as a captain.

Didn’t have Neill down as that sort of figure in the dressing room. I stand corrected.

Could it be that Collinson is being nurtured to take over the full team captaincy in the future at some point. Based on what I have seen of him I don’t think I can personally judge. But what I can say is that I think Scott Parker and Mark Noble (if Curbs ever stops resting him to prevent him from “burning out”) must both have very good claims to the armband too.

Sam