Stephen Robinson has revealed St Mirren cashed in on Ethan Sutherland after being informed the winger would not sign a new deal at the club.
The academy graduate - who was almost released two years ago - has completed a £300k transfer move to Premier League side Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Sutherland, 18, played his first Scottish Premiership match for St Mirren in Sunday's defeat to Celtic but viewed his future elsewhere after interest from Chelsea and Manchester City.
While disappointed to lose the highly-rated winger, Robinson insists club chiefs secured a quality deal for St Mirren with significant incentivised add-ons and a sell-on clauseincluded.
"He's been involved with us regularly," said Robinson of working with Sutherland. "When I first came in there was talk of him maybe being released. So as I said we've put a lot of processes in place in the academy that's allowed young players to develop and he's one of them.
"He's got a lot of potential and the big Premier League clubs are buying potential rather than boys that have played 100 games.
"Ethan's got a lot of talent, a lot of potential and we would like to have kept him. He thought his pathway was elsewhere even though he was involved in the first team a lot, trained every day with us and was obviously breaking into the team.
"That's a decision young boys have to make but when people make it clear that they're out of contract at the end of the season and they won't sign then you have to maximise that opportunity and I believe the club and Jim Gillespie have maximised that and got a very good deal with potentially it rising to really good numbers if Ethan fulfils the potential that Wolves believe he has.
Sutherland's transfer fee eclipses that of teenagers Dylan Reid, who joined Crystal Palace, Murray Campbell's switch to Burnley and Ethan Erhahon who had established himself as a key player at the SMiSA Stadium before a move to Lincoln City.
"It's two fold because there's a model at the club and a lot of the models down south are they buy boys between 16 and 18 now and pure potential," said Robinson.
"Constantly bringing £200,000 to £400,000 in all the time, it's a lot of money to us. If you consider we sold Ethan Erhahon for less and he played over 100 games.
Read more:
-
St Mirren boss Stephen Robinson on football sacking culture
"The other model is we bring boys in at 23, 24 and try and develop them for us and sell them. So it's a blow in terms of we believe in maybe two years time he could have been a really top player if he had kept developing and that's a big if.
"It's up to Ethan what he does now. He's a good kid. He's got lots and lots of attributes that could go right to the very top level. But as I say you have to maximise that.
"There's only a certain amount of compensation you would get if we let his contract run out. So I believe the club have done that and protected themselves with sell-ons and I believe it's a very good bit of business."
As well as missing the departing Sutherland for the trip to Dens Park, St Mirren will be without James Scott who suffered a knee ligament issue against Celtic and will be sidelined until after the international break.
Robinson, though, is hopeful his side will kick-start their league season with victory at the scene of celebrations after taking a huge step towards European qualification there last term.
“It was a good day up there last season," he said of the victory last season. "The boys celebrated well but they celebrate every win like that.
“People thought we went over the top with that celebration. We didn't because we celebrate every win like that - because you don't know when the next one's coming!
“It's been a tough two-week period but that's all it is. It's a two-week period.
“Nobody's lost any confidence. We're still doing the right things.We aim to start getting our league season back on form again on Saturday."
