Eddie Howe has revealed that he’s had ‘no thoughts’ of sending Lewis Miley on loan and that he will remain in and around the squad after shining over pre-season.
The boss believes that Miley is ‘too young’ to benefit from being exposed to a loan move right now and that it would be best from him to stay with his family and train at the club.
Throughout the Summer Series so far, the 17-year-old has stood out as one of our top performers, with his composure, passing range and athleticism particularly impressive.
Howe claimed he wasn’t surprised by the midfielder’s good form after watching him in training for the last six months and hopes to ‘guide and educate’ him even further in the upcoming season.
With so many fixtures coming up, the 45-year-old has promised that our academy product will receive minutes this year, hoping that the youngster will be able to ‘handle the attention and exposure’.
Speaking after our 1-1 draw with Chelsea, here’s what Howe had to say about Miley’s future:
“He will stay with us this season. There’s no thought of sending him on loan. For me he’s too young to be exposed to that at the moment.
“I think he needs to stay with his family and to train with us and to learn and develop around the players we have.
“I don’t think he’s surprised me because I’ve seen it for six months, including at the back end of last season, just how well he was developing and how strong he looked in the group. Physically is always the biggest test for someone so young but you’ve seen him today, he’s a very, very good athlete, he’s strong and a good size and he looks like he can handle the environment he’s in.
“The next step is to push him and develop him and I’m sure he’ll get minutes this year. The biggest challenge for Lewis will be to handle the attention and exposure.
“It’s dealing with that and then waiting for his opportunity while keeping his head. He’ll have a lot of people in his ear.
“All those things contribute to how you handle success and when it comes early that can be difficult. We’ll try and guide him and educate him as best we can.”
