PROMISING Southend United midfielder Beau MacDonald has signed his first professional contract with the club.

The 16-year-old made two substitute appearances for the Shrimpers’ first team last season.

And he has now agreed to put pen to paper on a new deal despite interest from elsewhere.

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

“Being given his first professional contract is something that Beau and all of us are proud of but now it’s about him still working hard to improve and develop to make sure it’s not his last.”

MacDonald has worked his way through the youth ranks at Roots Hall.

And, despite his young age, he has already been with Blues for close to 10 years.

"Beau has been at the club since the age of seven and he is a player that has always put in full commitment to the club and also to his game to develop and improve,2 said Heath.

"As coaches and staff we play a part in helping players developing and improving but ultimately it comes down to how much the players want it and how much they are also prepared to do on their own accord and when no one is watching.

"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," said Heath.

"We also had a total of 10 players train with the first team at various times from starting as early as pre season.

"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."