STEVEN Whittaker didn’t dare dream that one day he would look to make it 20 years as a professional footballer when at 15 he was knocked back by Manchester City in a letter just days after being told he was being taken on.

Heck, full-time employment must have felt beyond him when during this trying period he couldn’t even get a job with a local electrician company.

And there are his sliding doors moments.

Would Whittaker have been a success at City? Would he have become as good a sparky as he’s been a right back with Hibernian, Rangers, Norwich City and Scotland - he’s now closing in on 600 senior appearances? We will never know.

What we do know is that Manchester’s loss was Leith’s gain. Whittaker, now 34, is in his second spell at Easter Road and coming to the end of a fine career in which he has won everything, including 31 caps, and can honestly say there won’t be many, if any, folk in the game with a bad word to say about him.

The old man of Hibs, this is his second time at the club, has one more season remaining on his contract and then that might be it. At the club’s Dubai base, Whittaker looks relaxed about now and the future, and so what better time to look back on how it all began.

“At 15 I wasn’t sure how things were going to go,” admitted Whittaker. “I wanted to become a footballer and thought I’d be signing for Manchester City. I actually went down to sign with my parents.

“The scout took us down, with Joe Royle the manager of City at the time. I played in a match, we won 2-0 and I scored, so it wasn’t like I did anything wrong. But the contract just never happened.

“We came back up the road and got a letter a few days later saying ‘we’re not in a position to offer you a contract.’ Verbally they had done, so that was an early disappointment for me to deal with at that stage.

“But I wouldn’t change it for the world because of how it made me and what happened afterwards. That’s football and it’s how you cope with disappointment.

“I was determined from a young age I was going to play football. I’ll be honest, though, at that time I wasn’t sure what was going to happen. I was playing for Hibs in the Initiative League on a Sunday after playing for Hutchie Vale on a Saturday, which wouldn’t happen these days.

“But I didn’t know what was going to happen. I was still as school and had chosen all my Highers at the time and went in for about two weeks at the start of the year. I thought to myself: ‘what am I going to do now?’”

So, the young Whittaker went looking for a trade. Even that didn’t go exactly to plan.

“I went for a job interview to become an electrician,” he recalled. “I can't remember the firm or much about it, really, but I know I didn't get the job!

“Then Hibs got in touch and offered me a year’s contract to go in and see how I’d get on. Within three months I’d signed a five-year deal. It was then my second season, at 17, that I made my debut in the first team in the very last game of the season against St Johnstone away.

“I got on for the last 10 or 15 minutes and we won 1-0, Derek Townsley scoring a free-kick. I remember it like it as yesterday. But it’s amazing to think I was starting out almost 20 years ago.”

Whittaker was always smart. Right away he gave his all to becoming a player and was open to anything which would improve his game.

“My mentality when I was younger was about being the best I could be,” he said. “I tried to improve myself at every level possible. When Alex McLeish became the manager he used to bring in a sprint coach to work on our actual running technique.

“I was quite intrigued by this at the time and got to know the guy. So I’d go and see him sometimes twice a week at nights to work with his sprinters, thinking it might make a little difference.

“Little things like that can make a big difference. But if you don’t have that mentality then you’d never do it.

“Times have changed, though. When we did sessions no-one thought about doing squats or weights in the afternoon. But the lads do all that now. I always wanted to do anything that was available to me but they have all that in their routine now so it’s probably harder to do extra because everything now is thought of.

“I just wanted to become better. I say to lads now, put the work in. that might be in the gym or out on the pitch, tracking the runner to stop him from scoring.

“I’ll sit and tell them; track the runner in training or press the centre half and everyone else’s job becomes easier. And I’ll keep telling them.”

They should listen.