Eddie Howe is assessing his options going into the new season and has now called another Newcastle United academy player up to the first-team training pool.
Last season Kell Watts was sent out on loan to League One Peterborough, his fifth loan assignment from Newcastle.
Unfortunately Watts’s season was hampered by injury and he only made seven appearances for the Posh all season.
Howe is giving Kell Watts another shot in pre-season
Despite that lack of game time, Eddie Howe has opted to take a closer look at the 23-year-old defender as evidenced by the snaps in The Chronicle which shows Watts alongside the senior players in training.
Watts has already made his first-team bow, being handed a 16 minute cameo by Steve Bruce in a 3-1 defeat to Liverpool in 2020 but he has yet to force his way into Howe’s plans.
He has also played in a couple of pre-season friendlies for the Magpies, and always looks solid with some fans feeling he must be close to a senior call-up.
In fact, just last year Watts was the only player to play the full 90 minutes for Newcastle in a behind closed doors friendly with Gateshead which we thought was a hint that he could be in Howe’s plans, but he ended up going back out on loan.
Hopefully Watts can convince Howe he is ready for the first team
Could this year be the one where he finally convinces Eddie Howe that he has what it takes to play for the first team? It’s all down to Watts now, he has to show Howe something in training and in any friendlies he may play in that he’s ready.
Whatever happens it’s fantastic to see that Howe isn’t just ignoring the young players and is making an effort to give them their opportunity to impress and progress.
As the academy gets better we can expect to see more players coming through and representing the club at the highest level like Sean Longstaff.
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