{"id":27589,"date":"2021-01-27T04:20:55","date_gmt":"2021-01-27T05:20:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=27589"},"modified":"2021-01-27T07:58:26","modified_gmt":"2021-01-27T07:58:26","slug":"aussie-teen-ace-makes-premier-league-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=27589","title":{"rendered":"Aussie teen ace makes Premier League debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

Teenage midfielder Caleb Watts has become the 52nd Australian to play in the Premier League after making his debut off the bench for Southampton against Arsenal today.<\/p>\n

The 19-year-old replaced England star Theo Walcott and played 16 minutes in the 3-1 loss at home at St Mary's Stadium.<\/p>\n

Watts, a graduate of Australia's under-17 team, had a relatively quiet cameo but did win a free kick on the edge of Arsenal's box.<\/p>\n

He is the only Australian currently featuring on the Premier League pitch now that goalkeeper Mat Ryan is the back-up at Arsenal.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/DanielGarb\/status\/1354188627140460545?s=20<\/a><\/p>\n

Watts appears set to feature more in upcoming matches given the injury crisis at Southampton – who sit 11th in the Premier League.<\/p>\n

"It is not fun at the moment," Southampton manager Ralph Hasenhuttl said.<\/p>\n

"We are doing everything we can to bring them back but they need time.<\/p>\n

"Not really enjoyable at the moment with so many injured players."<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/OptusSport\/status\/1354210258445471746?s=20<\/a><\/p>\n

In an interview with The World Game<\/em><\/a>, Watts' former mentor Trevor Morgan said the attack-minded playmaker had a bright future at the top level.<\/p>\n

Morgan coached Watts at the under-17 World Cup in 2019 and is now Football Federation Australia's interim national technical director.<\/p>\n

"It's very pleasing," Morgan said after Watts made his senior Southampton debut in the FA Cup against Shrewsbury Town.<\/p>\n

"He's a wonderful talent.<\/p>\n

\"Caleb<\/p>\n

"He was exceptional for us at the World Cup and showed no fear in the matches we played.<\/p>\n

A lot of self-confidence.<\/p>\n

"Players like him that are breaking into senior football, he's 19 now, just turned 19, and there are other players that we took to the World Cup, several players that have already featured in the A-League this season that are only 18 years of age, which is fantastic.<\/p>\n

"I think what it does is it shows the mobility, it makes us excited about the future and possibly throws a few more names into the mix for what might be 2022."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Teenage midfielder Caleb Watts has become the 52nd Australian to play in the Premier League after making his debut off the bench for Southampton against […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27589"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27589"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27589\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27591,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27589\/revisions\/27591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}