Lloyd Kelly

[Tsunami]

He showed great acceleration over the 1st 10 yards. Made a recovery run in the 1st half that was very impressive. He looked pretty quick, only a friendly but encouraging.

[SUPERTOON]

Had no doubts over his quality when we signed him, only doubts are his fitness. Hopefully he can stay injury free.

[SteV]

Douglas interview with him:

 

Spoiler

When Eddie Howe shook hands with Lloyd Kelly in a London hotel after signing the defender this summerthey said two words to each other: “Unfinished business”.

It has perhaps been forgotten in the fog of confusion that has hung over Newcastle United’s summer but brokering a free agent deal for Kelly represented smart, savvy, sensible business for a club with vast resources but limited scope to use them under the Premier League’s profit and sustainability regulations (PSR).

Howe is a manager who chooses his words carefully so when, as Bournemouth manager back in 2020, he described Kelly after a few games as a having the tools to be a “top, top player capable of achieving great things” he was putting the Premier League on notice.

Four years on, and with Kelly having snubbed Tottenham and tentative interest from Liverpool this summer to re-sign with Howe, it feels time for the defender to repay Howe’s faith and realise the tremendous potential his manager spoke about.

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“Our relationship goes way back, he was the one to sign me from Bristol City at 19 and I could always come to him for anything I needed. I’ve always had so much respect for him, the way he wants to play his football is exciting and he always wants to work on his players and improve them,” Kelly says, his concise, measured interview style mirroring his neat style of play.

“We both said to each other ‘It’s unfinished business’ when we first met up after the signing and that is a mutual thing. We’ve got some work to do but it’s a positive thing, we’re both on the same page, I want to work, I want to develop and it is unfinished business.”

Kelly comes across as a confident person, wise beyond his 25 years. Despite what he admits has been a “stop-start” couple of years he makes no bones about his ambition to capitalise on England’s chronic lack of left-backs and embed himself in the Three Lions set-up before the next World Cup.

And he is equally open talking about the remarkable road that has brought him to to the Premier League.

In foster care for 11 years from the age of six, Kelly was driven and determined enough to emerge from a troubled start to life in his hometown of Bristol to make it as a professional footballer.

For that he credits the love of the three foster families who took in him, his younger brother Marcus and older sister Mary (“We are super strong,” he says of the tight-knit family unit), ferrying him to football training and giving him stability which he would not have had with his biological mother, who he hasn’t seen for some time.

“The support I got then was so important to my life and where I am now,” he says. “I’m open about it, I grew up in foster care from six or seven years old, right up until I was 18.

“It was something that shaped me. When I was going through it, I didn’t really know it at the time because you’re just a kid, but it gives you life lessons early on. It moulded me, made me who I am now and what I stand for. I wouldn’t change anything that happened in my childhood because I wouldn’t be where I am today without it, I wouldn’t be sat here as a professional footballer.

“It gives you resilience and strength. It teaches you that life may be hard, but you can push through it and get out of certain situations. You are always able to take something positive from every situation, it gives you that personal resilience for sure.”

It is an uplifting tale that deserves to be shared widely, and Kelly deserves credit for his openness around it, hoping that he can act as an inspiration for youngsters who find themselves in similar circumstances.

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He has worked with Bristol City Council on fostering projects and also with a charity that provides backpacks for homeless people. He hopes to find similar initiatives to help in the North East, which will be home for his own nine-month old son.

“I really do have so much gratitude for the foster system. When you are bringing in kids you don’t know what you expect,” he says. He points to his enduring close relationship with foster mum Thelma, who was a regular at Bournemouth games, as proof of that.

“I’ve done a fair bit of work with foster agencies in Bristol and the council and I’m always an advocate for people to foster. It’s an incredible thing to do, you can see the benefits of what comes from that.

“Not everybody is going to come out the other side of being in care, of being thrust into a completely new situation, as well as others but being able to provide a loving home to someone that means a hell of a lot. 

“Being an inspiration for kids in that situation now, that’s why I do the work for foster care. I want to be that voice for those kids and the carers too.

“If you focus, if you put in the hard work into something you want to do, don’t worry about the situation you are in. You can push on and make something of yourself.”

The move to Newcastle brings opportunity for Kelly but also risk, pushing him out of a comfort zone on the south coast. “Arriving at a new club is definitely more nerve wracking than what I went through as a kid. I didn’t really know any different back then,” he says.

But there is also excitement and conviction that he has joined a club on the up under a manager who is “one of the very best”. Few would begrudge him making a success of it.

 

[1964]

On 11/08/2024 at 08:39, Tsunami said:

He showed great acceleration over the 1st 10 yards. Made a recovery run in the 1st half that was very impressive. He looked pretty quick, only a friendly but encouraging.

The Bournemouth fans did say that his pace was one of his strengths 💪 

[Likelylad]

Does he start CB with Schar on Sat?

[The Prophet]

I'll eat my hat if Burn doesn't start.

[The Butcher]

Reckon it will be 

 

Trippier - Schar - Burn - Hall

 

[toontownman]

Blood pressure raised seeing this thread getting bumped! 

 

Stay fit Lloyd.

[Chris_R]

1 hour ago, SteV said:

he makes no bones about his ambition to capitalise on England’s chronic lack of left-backs and embed himself in the Three Lions set-up before the next World Cup

 

Lads, he's not playing centre back.

 

I love Howe but he hates short left backs, and Hall is going back on the bench.

[Alberto2005]

Hall will start imo.

[STM]

Just now, Chris_R said:

 

Lads, he's not playing centre back.

 

I love Howe but he hates short left backs, and Hall is going back on the bench.

 

I was thinking the same but all pre season evidence is the opposite.

[Mazzy]

Just now, Alberto2005 said:

Hall will start imo.

 

If Hall and Tino do not start in their respective full back positions against Southampton then they would have every right to be angry. They've played the entire pre season, in Halls case done exceptionally well and deserve the chance to start. Tripper isn't fit yet and arguably neither is Kelly. Both should start without a doubt 

[Optimistic Nut]

2 minutes ago, Mazzy said:

 

If Hall and Tino do not start in their respective full back positions against Southampton then they would have every right to be angry. They've played the entire pre season, in Halls case done exceptionally well and deserve the chance to start. Tripper isn't fit yet and arguably neither is Kelly. Both should start without a doubt 

 

Would you start Barnes over Gordon? 

[Mazzy]

2 minutes ago, Optimistic Nut said:

 

Would you start Barnes over Gordon? 

 

Gordon is fit and ready having played near zero minutes this summer. Tripper played almost every game whilst being injured for England and Kelly is recovering from his injury back end of last season. Different circumstances.

 

Barnes would have every right to feel a little hard done by but it's not the same.

[Optimistic Nut]

Hall 100% should feel hard done by but that's just because he's by far our best LB.

 

I still think Trippier is our best RB and offers so much for us. If Trippier is making the same sort of mistakes as in December though I'd be getting Tino in.

[Mazzy]

2 minutes ago, Optimistic Nut said:

Hall 100% should feel hard done by but that's just because he's by far our best LB.

 

I still think Trippier is our best RB and offers so much for us. If Trippier is making the same sort of mistakes as in December though I'd be getting Tino in.

 

I don't disagree about Tripper and if he'd had the summer off then he'd start, no doubt about that at all.

[Nucasol]

7 minutes ago, Optimistic Nut said:

Hall 100% should feel hard done by but that's just because he's by far our best LB.

 

I still think Trippier is our best RB and offers so much for us. If Trippier is making the same sort of mistakes as in December though I'd be getting Tino in.

If Tripps makes the same balls ups he made in December against Southampton or Bournemouth I’d be packing his bags for the next available flight to KSA.

[Optimistic Nut]

I wouldn't even be against Tino in front of him on the right-wing. Definitely got the tools to be a Bale-lite if we went that way. 

[Sibierski]

14 minutes ago, Optimistic Nut said:

Hall 100% should feel hard done by but that's just because he's by far our best LB.

 

I still think Trippier is our best RB and offers so much for us. If Trippier is making the same sort of mistakes as in December though I'd be getting Tino in.

Tino equally offers so much for us in a different way. 

[SteV]

19 minutes ago, Sibierski said:

Tino equally offers so much for us in a different way. 

“Equally” is probably (well almost certainly) an exaggeration, but it is worth remembering he is only going to improve.

[Sibierski]

1 hour ago, SteV said:

“Equally” is probably (well almost certainly) an exaggeration, but it is worth remembering he is only going to improve.

Over the years, Trippier has offered us a lot, from set plays and his passing in open play. But when Tino plays, he offers so much to us breaking the lines and his dribbling forward. Having a full back that’s capable of taking on players opens up attacking areas as much as Trippier passing does, both impact in different ways.

[andycap]

Howe could start kelly at leftback with him up against Armstrong try and nullify his pace coming of the flank.