Watt makes Toon rookie Kell special?
FORMER COACH LAUDS DEDICATION OF DEFENDER AFTER FIRST-TEAM DEBUT
AS Kell Watts looked down the camera, his face was beaming. Newcastle United had just lost 3-1 to Liverpool but few would hold it against the boyhood Toon fan for his ear-to-ear smile.
After all, the 20-year-old had just made his top-flight debut against the Premier League champions.
“He said maybe he should not have been smiling as much,” Watts’ former coach David Ballantyne, who runs Feet4Football, told
The Chronicle. “He was just in the moment – when you are a bit more experienced you maybe hold it in a bit more but Kell was just all smiles, wasn’t he?”
Friends, family and coaching staff, including Ballantyne,
watched on with pride and as the board went up and Watts had his chance to step on to the biggest stage. Ballantyne, who spoke with the newest Magpies debutant on Monday, added: “It was a bit emotional really. He is my first one to make his Premier League debut, so it was very emotional and a bit surreal. “I still look at him as the kid who first came in at seven years old but it was a very proud moment and I told him I was very proud of him.” Rather than being intimidated by an all-star Liverpool all-star cast on their way to achieving 99 points for the season, Watts played without nerves getting the better of him. His introduction came just 10 minutes after Jurgen Klopp had brought on Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah, the latter of whom gave the United rookie his shirt at fulltime. Not content with getting a memento from the Egyptian superstar, Watts also got Virgil van Dijk’s No 4 as well.
Ballantyne said:
“He said he was not that nervous, he would have been more nervous if the stadium had been full.
“That is the next thing he wants, that is what he cannot wait for - having the fans back.
“He is desperate to try to cement a first-team place
– it has just given him the taste. He is away for five days on holiday but he has already started thinking about training when he returns – he is that dedicated.”
It is that dedication which first caught the attention of Ballantyne as Wallsend Boys Club’s Peter Kirkley brought Watts to the Magpies as a youngster.
He recalled: “That is what probably stands him out to the rest – the attitude and desire to do the extra.
“At seven years old he
He is desperate to try to cement a first-team place – his debut has just given him the taste
David Ballantyne on Kell Watts
was so focused, he wanted to be a professional footballer, that is what stood him out – that mental side of the game, so strong, so dedicated, so focused on being a footballer and doing everything it takes and more to be one.”
He added: “He has worked himself through the academy and he did my coaching sessions on the side. At some points, I was coaching Kell up to five times a week.” Watts would turn up an hour early for the extra training sessions and 11 years on and 15 minutes of Premier League football later that commitment is inspiring the next generation. Ballantyne said: “It is great for them, some of them this morning beat the results Kell got for the footwork and then they go ‘wow, I beat Kell’ – and it just gives them the enthusiasm to keep practising. They say ‘well he hasdone it, why can’t we?’”
Sunday’s debut marked the end of the beginning for Watts.
First involved with the United first team last year when he was on the bench for the season-ending Fulham game, he was loaned out to League Two clubs Mansfield and Stevenage this season.
After taking a place on the bench against Brighton earlier this month, he finally got his chance against the Reds and now is hungry for more.
The England under-19 international was quick to rewatch his debut, not to see the moment his number came up on the fourth official’s board but to study his own game.
It is a sign of the sort of character needed to make it at the highest level.
With the Longstaff brothers in the first-team mix and Jack Young, Tom Allan and Dan Barlaser also involved with the squad, there is hope United could soon be fielding a team with more local lads.