Newcastle line up trial for 17-year-old Aussie whizzkid.

It looks as though Newcastle are lining up another highly rated youngster as they look to continue their policy of building for the future and creating their own superstars.

It's a risky strategy in some regards as you can never guarantee the success of a player over the mid to long term. A player who looks promising at a young age has no guarantee of fulfilling his potential and could just as easily drift out of the game and end up at a lower level. One thing is for certain though, and that is that the route of 'growing your own' players is certainly cheaper than going out and buying the ready made versions.

Which is why it wouldn't surprise me if these tentative reports of us giving a trial to a highly rated 17-year-old Australian youth international going by the name of Mustafa Amini turned out to be true. According to reports, Amini is due to complete ten days training with Borussia Dortmund before heading to Tyneside and having a trial with Newcastle United. It may not be true however as there are conflicting reports suggesting that the player will not be in Dortmund, or Newcastle in fact, but will actually be at Bayern Munich where he will undergo a trial before committing to a long term deal with the Bavarian side.

Amini has represented Australia at both under-17 and under-20 levels and currently plays his football in the A-League with Central Coast Mariners. Well known for his 'Afro' hairstyle, the son of an Afghan father and Nicaraguan mother is highly rated and has been dubbed one of the brightest prospects of his generation to come out of Australia.

There have been quite a few trialists that have come and gone at NUFC in the last year or so. Some of them haven't worked out, like Billy Knott for example, whilst some of them have been a success and have earned a deal on the back of making an impression during their trial period, like Yven Moyo.

It seems as though the approach of 'try before you buy' doesn't just apply to first-team loanees made permanent like Danny Simpson and Hatem Ben Arfa and it seems as though even the kids have to earn their stripes before earning a deal.

There is nothing more exciting that growing your own players from a young age in my opinion, which was part of the excitement of Andy Carroll although admittedly that excitement was boosted by the fact that he was a local lad. Still, as he showed, locality means nothing really which it's why it's nice to nurture your own players, whatever their nationality.

Now I don't know much about this lad in question, but if anyone does then please feel free to share your knowledge with us. If he is as highly rated as it seems then it can only be a good thing and will help boost our academy. To be honest, our academy has been pants for years and has been playing catch up for some time now after it was shut down by Kevin Keegan back in the 1990's so it's about time we cranked it up again. After all, it's what all the top clubs do, and if we want to be a truly top club again we will have to match what the others are doing right from top to bottom.

It seems as though we are building from the bottom up this time though.