Paul Jewell has been left “frustrated” by Jay Emmanuel-Thomas’ start at the Blues – but still believes his young enigma will win over the fans.

Emmanuel-Thomas started his seventh consecutive match on the bench on Tuesday night, coming on in the 65th minute for Michael Chopra in the 1-0 win over Portsmouth but once again only showing flashes of his talent.

And after it was reported he is hoping to launch a music career, JET has been urged by Jewell to just concentrate on his football career after an underwhelming first few months following his �1 million move from Arsenal.

But offering words of encouragement, Jewell said: “We have bought potential, there is no doubt about that – he can do things in training that no one else can, but he sometimes just finds the simple things difficult.

“He is frustrating as he can look lazy, but that doesn’t mean he is. And he is getting better. He just, mentally and psychically, found it a bit tougher than he thought he would be.

“I bought him to go into the team but he wasn’t fit enough. He has shown flashes, bit and pieces, but he hasn’t shown enough consistency – but you do get that with young players.”

Jewell believes JET has suffered from missing out on a large chunk of pre-season, revealing the forward has struggled to adapt to his new surroundings.

He explained: “He is not fit, he has come from Arsenal but not had the tough summer like the lads have had here. It is always difficult to catch up.

“I’m surprised by what shape he was in. He wasn’t up to speed with the tempo we want to play and how we want to train. When we do fitness runs, he tailed off but now he is not tailing off so much.

“Sometimes when you are not part of a first team squad, subconsciously maybe you don’t push yourself as hard. It was a bit of a shock to his system. He has been at Blackpool, Doncaster and Cardiff all on loan, so he has always had the comfort blanket of going back to the Arsenal. He doesn’t have that any more. This is his team. “When you look at him, he looks like a man-mountain, but he is only 20 and he has got a lot to learn and a lot of growing up to do. Maybe this time next year, he might be the player that everyone is talking about.”