Southend United midfielder signs first pro contract

Last season, the 16-year-old made two appearances as a substitute for the Shrimpers’ first squad.

ENDORSING Beau MacDonald, a midfielder for Southend United, has committed to the team for his first professional deal.

And despite interest from abroad, he has now consented to sign a new contract.

“There has been interest in Beau from other clubs this season, as high as the Championship,” Blues youth squad coach Danny Heath acknowledged, “but it’s a compliment to all the staff at the club that he didn’t want to leave.”

Beau and all of us are proud that he received his first professional contract, but he must now continue to put in a lot of effort to grow and change so that it won’t be his last.

MacDonald has progressed through Roots Hall’s youth ranks.

He has also spent almost ten years with Blues, despite his youth.

“Beau has been with the team since he was seven years old, and he is a player who has always given the team his all in order to grow and improve,” Heath remarked.

As staff members and coaches, we can assist players grow and improve, but in the end, it all comes down to how much the players want it and how ready they are to work independently and when no one else is there.

“Beau has this in abundance to work on his strengths and also other areas of his game that also need improving. ”

And Heath feels MacDonald has been able to show those skills throughout his first season with the under 19s.

“It has been a good season for Beau in the youth team,” said Heath.

“He has consistently demonstrated his strengths well in terms of being a box to box midfielder that shows good quality with his forward passing and delivery.

“He also has the ability to create goal scoring opportunities with the final pass as well as adding more goals to his game in the latter part of the season.”

But it is not just that which has impressed Heath.

“Beau will also cover ground effectively out of possession to get pressure to the ball and to deny the opposition comfortable possession,” said Heath.

“It was a proud moment for Beau and for everyone at the club when he came on and made his first team debut against Yeovil Town away in the FA Cup earlier on in the season.

“This is something that can’t be taken away from Beau and it was an experience that he loved every minute of.

“He learnt loads from the gaffer (Kevin Maher), Daz (Darren Currie), Benno (Mark Bentley) and the first team players.”

And the youth team staff did all they could to fully capitalise on MacDonald’s first team involvement.

“As a collective staff from all at the club it was also important that we gave Beau the support network so that he continued to put the hard work in and that he used his learning experiences with the first team when being back with the youth team,” said Heath.

“One of the things Beau learnt was the intensity at which the first team did things with and without the ball but learning never stops.”

But it is not just MacDonald doing well within the under 19s.

“It’s been a very positive and proud season with two players being offered their professional contracts,” Heath added.

Ten players in all trained with the first team at different times, beginning as early as the preseason.

“Although it’s nice winning youth games of football, it’s important to not lose sight of our job which is to help players develop and improve and to ultimately support the gaffer and the first team and these stats are stats that we can all be proud of.”