Newcastle United assistant manager John Carver admits Kevin Keegan's decision to disband the reserves saw Michael Carrick slip through their net.

The Manchester United midfielder ended up at West Ham United before moving onto Tottenham.

Carver told The Journal: "When Kevin Keegan was the manager we did away with the reserve team. I was with the centre of excellence at the time and that period was difficult for this football club because we had no reserve team.

"We lost Michael Carrick because of it. His parents asked 'Where's he going to play John'.

"I said the first team and they told me to come off it. We had the Entertainers so he was never going to get in there. So they took him to West Ham."