CHERRIES boss Eddie Howe insists young-gun Christian Saydee “certainly has a talent” and admitted: “Nothing seems to faze him at the moment.”

The 17-year-old frontman has been in stellar form for the club’s under-18s this season, his 16 strikes putting him as the leading goalscorer for Alan Connell’s youth squad.

Saydee, who has trained regularly with the first team this campaign, saw his form rewarded when he was selected among the substitutes for the first time in a Premier League match at Tottenham last month.

The former Reading youngster, who scored a hat-trick in a 10-1 win over Plymouth under-18s on Saturday, has bounced back from rupturing his medial collateral ligament last season to catch the eye of Howe.

Quizzed on Saydee following his inclusion in the first-team squad in north London, the boss told the Daily Echo: “He has done well this season when I have seen him in and amongst training around the professionals.

“He is technically very good. I think you can still see he’s maybe got some fitness work to do, related to the injury that he had.

“We are trying to treat him in the right way, not push him too much because he has certainly got a talent.

“He is quite laid back. Nothing seems to faze him at the moment, which is a good thing.

“I think he is taking it all in and absorbing all the information needed.”

Saydee is expected to captain Connell’s under-18s when Cherries host Barnet in the third round of the FA Youth Cup at Vitality Stadium tomorrow (7pm).

Howe, who himself represented Cherries in the competition, believes youngsters mixing it with the senior professionals in training would only be massive for their own development.

“It’s nice for them to have that taste of what it’s like,” he added.

“I think when I look back at myself at that age, just being around the first team was an education.

“Seeing how the coaches worked, seeing how the players acted was an eye-opener for me. If we can give them that experience it’s great for their future development.

“You are out of your comfort zone, you just want to survive. You just don’t want to die on the training pitch – in the sense that you don’t want to be seen to not be good enough.

“I think there is that pressure, which is great for young players. That’s how you develop.

“It left me going away thinking ‘I’ve got to work on certain aspects of my game to come back stronger and that’s what I tried to do.”

Teenager Saydee told the club’s website: “Training with the first team has been really good but travelling and being on the bench was also a great experience and has really helped my confidence.

“Hopefully, I will get better as a player because it’s high intensity and you have to think quicker.

“I’ve already learned a lot from being around the first team and talking to some of the players, especially the strikers.

“I watch the way Callum Wilson, Dom Solanke and Joshua King apply themselves in training and their movement and the finishing side. It has all been really good and I can only learn from them.”