Pardew hails Shelvey's potential

Charlton manager Alan Pardew believes central midfielder Jonjo Shelvey could turn out to be a "special player".

The 16-year-old became the youngest player in the club's history in the 3-0 defeat at Barnsley on Saturday and saw a shot cleared off the line.

Pardew told BBC London 94.9: "Jonjo's performance was a real highlight and it announced his arrival.

"He certainly showed he has real talent. We might have a special player on our hands."

Pardew added: "His schoolmaster rang me in the morning and asked me where he was and I told him he was about to make his big entrance."

"He showed fantastic poise and talent. It's going to be difficult to keep the headlines away from him if he keeps playing like that."

"We certainly felt confident that he was going to play well, otherwise he wouldn't have played so it wasn't a complete fluke to us. There's a long way to go for him, but he's announced his arrival in some style."

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