Jem Karacan: Is He One to Keep On?

He was a signing which somewhat came out of the blue. Jem Karacan arrived on a short term deal in the wake of Jay Spearing’s injury to add depth to a somehow once again stretched part of our squad. Since then he has struggled to gain a regular place in the team as Spearing and Darren Pratley returned from injury. But should this mean that the Bolton Wanderers career of one of the goal scorers against Peterborough United should be short? I don’t necessarily think so.

The game against Peterboroug was the first time I saw Karacan playing and I was impressed by his performance in a number of ways. Throughout the game he was making good runs forward. He was also tracking back with pace and determination putting in some strong tackles in the middle of the park and helping to shield the defence. Not only that but he popped up in exactly the right place at the right time to smash Dorian Dervite’s fantastic cross home.

I felt of the centre midfielders on show he put in the most complete, box to box, performance and as such is exactly what I would be looking for in a centre mid. Jay Spearing put in a great performance looking very calm on the ball and recycling it well. Vela looked threatening especially as he set up the third goal expertly. Darren Pratley ran around lots. But Jem looked good in all he did and offered everything the others did in his game.

For me he is a player worth keeping on to see if he can cut it in the Championship, especially as beyond Spearing and Vela and I’m not convinced we have any centre mids on our books capable of making the step up.