Bad news for the young fella. For me, Kenny's use of Shelvey was pretty brave and (whisper it) reminiscent of the way Fergie has always brought young players through. He came into the side as a regular sub and never looked anything like a world beater. However, he equally never let us down (albeit in the small amount of evidence before us). Basically Kenny is simply backing his own judgement in the knowledge that developing a player like him is a long term aim that you have to just get on with. No doubt some will draw parallels with Insua, but I don't as he did let us down and with great regularity. It's obviously very early day for Shelvey and I'm far from blown away. However, I do like the way Kenny's handled him and look forward to seeing how he develops over the next couple of years. I'm not sold on Shelvey yet, but I like the fact Kenny seems determined to bring him through. He's still very, very young as well. I'd like to see Jay get Shelvey's minutes now, but he's only just started training again. He's running now, but not training with the other lads (or at least he wasn't as of two days ago) so he may still be a bit away from being ready.
I wouldn't draw parallels because as a fullback Insua's defensive naivety was going to be more costly. No denying Shelvey has something about him but I think Insua did well having to be first choice so young and he was progressing steadily if not in leaps and bounds, just as Lucas did.
