Kemen now training with the first team

Beardsley seems to be doing a decent job of bringing some lads through.

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/spor...astle-uniteds-teenage-starlet-olivier-8673518

Newcastle United legend Peter Beardsley feels exciting French teenager Olivier Kemen is getting closer to first-team football – but still has work to do before he can be regarded as a Premier League player.
With Cheick Tiote likely to miss most of the rest of the season, Kemen has been training with the first team.
The 18-year-old has similar capabilities to Tiote in that he is a tough-tackling midfielder, who offers energy and presence in the central area.
Mehdi Abeid’s chances of first- team recognition have also been boosted due to Tiote’s absence with a knee injury.
Head coach John Carver ran the rule over Kemen in the Northumberland Senior Cup game with Morpeth Town this week.
Kemen ended up on the losing side but put in an eye-catching performance in front of the Toon chief.
It is understood that Kemen is keen to kick on at United or go out on loan.

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Olivier Kemen
Read more: Peter Beardsley wants Newcastle United young guns to learn from cup defeat to Morpeth
When asked about his first-team prospects, Beardsley, who has guided the Under-21s to the upper reaches of the reserve-team division this term, told the Chronicle: “To be fair, that’ll be John’s decision.
“But he’s a powerful lad and obviously has ability.
“We look at the other side of it and he has to learn to get the ball back.
“When he runs with the ball he looks like a proper player.
“But there are two sides to the game and he has to do both sides.
“At the moment he trains with the first team a lot.
“Eventually he will get it.
“When Mehdi Abeid came he didn’t have it all but now he’s got it, so it takes time.
“He’s still only 18, so in that sense he’s got a long way to go.”
United are likely to add Lubo Satka to the squad for the trip to Manchester City on Saturday night, as they are thin on the ground in terms of defenders.
Paul Dummett will learn this week how many games he will miss after picking up a knee injury.
The defender will have further assessment on the injury, which he picked up against Crystal Palace last week during the 1-1 draw at Selhurst Park.

 

Good news for me. This lad has stood out for the junior sides so it should be interesting to see how he gets on. He could save on us needing to replace TIote as we should probably look to offload in the summer with Colback, Abeid, and Anita more suited to our current way of playing.

 

He was on the losing side against the mighty "Morpeth Town". They probably have higher aspirations than we do.

 

Probably the only reason he is training with the first team is that we currently don't have enough players for a 6-a-side game at the end.