Journalist reveals Howe has 'taken a liking' to NUFC teen; he's been 'training' with first team

Newcastle United journalist Chris Waugh has been talking about young prospect Lucas De Bolle and his role at the club.

Newcastle are entering a very interesting time in their season.

With safety in the Premier League looking rather secure, with data analytics site FiveThirtyEight giving them just a 4% chance of relegation, they should soon have the chance to see what their team will look like for next season, and could use that time to experiment by developing some of the club’s younger players towards the end of the campaign.

Speaking on the latest edition of the Pod On The Tyne podcast as part of a segment where Waugh was talking about players in the U23 side that have impressed him recently and have the potential to make a breakthrough into the first team, the journalist claimed that 19-year-old De Bolle was someone to keep an eye on, noting that Newcastle boss Eddie Howe appears to be a fan of his.

He said: “Lucas De Bolle has been training a lot with the first team, he’s been on the bench regularly recently, he’s a young midfielder who Eddie Howe has really taken a liking to.”

TIF Thoughts on Chris Waugh’s comments about Lucas De Bolle at Newcastle United…

As Waugh points out, De Bolle has made the bench a couple of times in recent months, but that first senior appearance still eludes him.

It certainly will be interesting to see whether or not he does manage to make that breakthrough between now and the end of the season, because it might give an indicator as to how the club want to operate moving forward.

Despite their vast wealth, reports have suggested that Newcastle’s budget will be limited this summer, so it may well be that Howe will need to look to the academy and players coming through to supplement his