Cambridge United are delighted to announce young winger Tom Knowles has signed an extended professional contract with the Club until the end of the 2018/19 season.
Knowles, 19, first joined the U’s in 2016, progressing through the Club’s Shadow Scholarship programme before moving up into the Club’s full-time scholarship programme. At the beginning of the current campaign he put pen to paper on a six month development contract, providing him further exposure to the professional environment.
So far this season the youngster has also impressed during loan spells with Cambridge City and more recently St Ives Town, where he returns to the latter for an extended loan period to continue gaining experience at a senior level.
Academy Manager and First Team Coach Mark Bonner commented: "Having signed a development contract at the start of the season, the time has been crucial to Tom given the fact that he was a latecomer to the scholarship group having progressed through our shadow scholarship programme.
“Tom has approached his opportunity with enthusiasm, commitment and maturity. He's taken ownership for his development and shown a willingness to learn and improve. Having experienced successful loan periods, the challenge for him in the coming months is to maintain his thirst for improvement and to approach training and games with continued endeavour and desire. This remains the challenge to our young players with ambitions to break in to the first team squad.
“This signifies the importance of building development programmes and pathways that are specific to the needs of each individual and should serve as motivation for any young player in the club, not least Tom as he now has new goals he must strive towards."