Blues boss Mick McCarthy says 17-year-old midfielder Tristan Nydam doesn’t look out of place when training with the first team squad. McCarthy says Nydam and fellow 17-year-old Pat Webber, a left-back, are likely to be among the youngsters who could be given a taste of first-team football before the end of the season.
Nydam was on the bench for the senior side for the first time at Huddersfield last week, having appeared as a sub in the pre-season friendly at Cambridge.
"I like everything about him,” McCarthy enthused. "His personality on the pitch, he likes to get on the ball, he’s quick, he’s tough, he’s a good footballer, he passes it, he wants to get on it and play.
"And when he comes and trains with the first team and he doesn’t look out of place. I took him to Huddersfield really as a left-back, a left wing-back last week thinking that I hadn’t got too many left footers around the place. Pat Webber had been on the bench but I took Tristan because he deserves it.”
Might the likes of Nydam and Webber get their first-team chance once the Blues have made themselves safe from relegation this season? "Unless one of them blows me away completely and I think he should be in the team. But yes, if we were mathematically safe, then they would get a game.”
Regarding Webber, who joined the academy from non-league Worthing in May last year after a trial and was an unused first-team sub for the FA Cup ties with Lincoln and the Blackburn league game, he added: "Damian, his father, played for me at Millwall. He’s done all right, he trains with us and he’s done fine.
"I don’t think he’s ready for the first team but we’d no left-sided cover with Myles Kenlock being injured and if there was anything up with Jonas I’d put him on the pitch.”