The 18-year-old left Tynecastle on loan in the winter window for a crack at the Premier League
Irked Gordon Strachan has unleashed on James Wilson after his decision to leave Hearts for Tottenham.
The Hearts kid made a surprise deadline day switch to the Premier League giants after opting to join Tottenham’s youth set up on an initial six month loan that includes an option to buy, while Arsenal were also on alert. Following the switch, boss Derek McInnes told Wilson he made the wrong move signing for Spurs.
The 18-year-old had struggled for regular game time with the Premiership leaders this term, but McInnes would have preferred the prospect made a temporary switch to a move in Scotland. Since then, the Scotland cap has gone on to make his Premier League 2 debut for the North London side.
Strachan reckons the switch will prove to be a misstep as the former Celtic boss insisted the PL2 is the "last place" Wilson should have gone to develop, as he branded the set-up the "Disneyland of football".
He told BetVictor Casino: "He wasn't playing first-team football because there were people in front of him who were better at that moment in time. Would I have said go to Spurs? I'd have said no.
"I think Derek McInnes is right, and when Derek's angry, and Derek can be an angry man at times. He's quite right because young players always have this plateau and that’s where you have character building moments.
"The last place you want to go to develop your character is the Premier League 2.
"There's no character building there whatsoever. Because if you look at them, who's top of that league? Who cares? What are the scores? Who cares?
"It is like the Disneyland of football. It's fluffy. It's nice. There's nothing to it.
"Nobody gets hurt in there, nobody gets spoken to the wrong way, nobody gets put under pressure, there's no crowd screaming at them.
"The manager can't even demand from them because it's the Disneyland of football. You want to go there if you want no pressure, enjoy yourself."
The Dundee technical director insists that Wilson will now suffer when he makes the jump back to first-team football.
He went on: "I see players going from that league [Premier League 2] to Scotland, and it's like putting a domesticated animal in the jungle.
"Derek's right, if you really want development, because we see players coming up and you see them developing. We've got two at Dundee at the moment who are doing terrifically well, Tony Yogane and Cameron Congreve
"Cameron went out to Bromley and did very well there, but you have to get out of this league because it will suffocate you. And that is that league.
"Usually, the top players are playing by 17, 18 anyway, but if you get smothered between 18 and 22 in that league, if you're still playing in that league for four years, you'll literally have become nullified to the realities of football.
"I went to see one recently, just up the road. I said get me home, I've got to watch something else, I might even watch EastEnders because it must be better than this."