The 21-year-old wing-back will link up with the Red Devils' Under-21 side after making a shock move on loan to Old Trafford in exchange for young defender Saidy Janko
PROFILE
By Oliver Platt & Daniel Lomax
If this winter’s relatively quiet deadline day was disappointing for fans, it was the opposite for a young
Bolton Wanderers defender named
Andy Kellett.
The 21-year-old, who has spent most of his season so far on loan at Plymouth Argyle in League Two, is now a Manchester United player – at least for a few months.
“It's a great opportunity for Andy,” Bolton manager Neil Lennon said. “We called about Saidy [Janko] and Man United asked for him to go the other way. He thought it was a wind-up.”
The
Bolton News recounts the scene as Kellett was informed of his next destination. “Sit down Andy,” first team coach Garry Parker said. “We’ve got some good news and some bad news.”
“You’re not going back to Plymouth,” was the bad. “You’re going to Manchester United.”
This is not, in all likelihood, a case of United spotting a potential star but a strengthening of their Under-21 side following the departures of the versatile Janko, who has been loaned to Bolton, and Marnick Vermijl, who joins Sheffield Wednesday permanently.
Those moves had left the development squad thin on the ground at full-back and coach Warren Joyce will have been aware of Kellett, who has played for Bolton’s reserve side in the same league. “We were aware of United's interest last week and I know Warren Joyce likes him a lot,” Lennon added.
Kellett played regularly while on loan at Plymouth earlier this season and scored a sensational first professional goal, dancing past three players from the left touchline to the penalty area before prodding a shot past the goalkeeper from no more than eight yards.
He is a fast and direct attacker, if still perfecting the defensive side of his game, and Argyle’s 3-5-2 system, in which he played at left wing-back, suited him down to the ground. Kellett’s comfort in that formation is an intriguing detail given Louis van Gaal’s frequent use of it, although it would take another significant injury crisis for him to follow the likes of Tyler Blackett and Paddy McNair to the first team.
Much like Van Gaal, former Celtic boss Lennon has looked to give more of Bolton’s academy players a chance in the first team since replacing Dougie Freedman and his faith has been repaid by the likes of Zach Clough and Josh Vela, who are now considered first-team regulars.
That is a marked shift at a club where Kellett, at the back end of last season, became the first local academy player in eight years to make a first-team appearance.
He played again at wing-back on Tuesday, against Rotherham, but a Bolton side that has tightened up in defence since changing managers suffered a 4-2 defeat and Kellett was hooked after 51 minutes.
A subsequent return to Plymouth for further exposure to senior football was expected before the unexpected call came. At worst, Kellett will spend a few months enjoying top-class facilities while working with some of the best coaches in the world – and perhaps United will take a liking to him.
