MOTHERWELL manager Stephen Robinson made it clear last week that even though Jake Hastie’s star continues to rise at an astonishing rate, the terms of his contract offer from the Fir Park club will not. They have offered him everything they possibly can.

The 19-year-old winger’s value may be increasing with every appearance, with the youngster bagging his fifth goal in six games in Sunday’s win over Hearts, but Motherwell fans needn’t be concerned about the seemingly interminable wait for Hastie to commit his future to the club.

There is no doubt the winger is flying high at the moment, but his feet remain firmly on the ground, and he has reassured any worried Motherwell supporters that he knows he is in exactly the right place to continue his rapid development.

“My agent is still in talks, so hopefully [I’ll sign] in the next couple of weeks,” Hastie said.

“I definitely want to stay here. I’m playing football and that’s the main thing.

“I’m still only 19 and I’ve still got a lot to learn about the game, and this is the best place to do it.

“It can be a bit frustrating but I’m just letting my agent deal with it. I know that some players have gone down south young and it hasn’t worked out, so being here just now is the best place for me.

“I just want to keep doing what I have been and keep playing well.”

Keeping up his remarkable levels of consistency might be asking a lot, but Hastie is determined to do everything he can to push himself to reach new heights.

He credits his loan move to Alloa in the first half of this campaign as the catalyst for his explosion onto the Premiership scene, and he is banking on hard graft to help maintain his upwards trajectory.

“I felt that I matured when I went out on loan, especially from playing in front of crowds,” he said.

“If you aren’t playing well they are going to tell you that you aren’t playing well, and if you are playing well they will tell you too.

“Jim Goodwin was really good with me one to one and he gave me the confidence to see how good I could be. I just feel as if I’ve come back here and I am now taking my game to the next level in every match.

“My expectations were to come back and fight for a place in the first team. I didn’t think it would come straight away, I thought I would have to bide my time a little bit, but luckily I got on because of injuries and now I just need to keep doing what I’m doing and keep giving the gaffer a headache.

“I practice after training, working with Mo (Ross) who takes us for shooting, and I just feel that all the extra hard work is paying off. All week we work on that wee touch and hit so that I can make a yard for myself.

“All the young ones here are always up the gym, we’re always doing extra and we’re always the last ones out of here.

“We just need to keep doing that.”

Hastie has developed a taste for the spectacular in terms of his goalscoring, with Sunday’s strike against Hearts and his rocket in a win at St Mirren in particular catching the eye.

When he’s not viewing re-runs of those goals, Hastie likes to watch and learn from Gareth Bale, and while resisting comparisons to the Real Madrid superstar, he admits he models his game on the Welshman.

“I actually watched a couple on Sunday morning before I played,” he said.

“Obviously I’m not as good as him, but I try different aspects of his game and I try to work on the way he runs at folk.

“He’s so quick and powerful, so I’ll keep working away up in the gym to get bigger and stronger.”