Fringe Player Focus – Jamaal Lascelles

Shamrock

Will Lascelles make the step up?
Will Lascelles make the step up?
Whilst we are waiting on the confirmation of our latest addition to the back line I thought it would be an idea to take a look at Jamaal Lascelles – whose arrival has been kept relatively under the radar by virtue of his one year loan back to the Championship.

Jamaal Lascelles is a 21-year-old Derbyshire born central defender standing at 6’2”. He came through the youth system at Nottingham Forest and was subject of an underhand approach for his services by Everton in 2010. This resulted in a fine for the Toffees and a warning to Lascelles over his conduct. Clearly then, he has been highly rated for some time. He broke into the starting line up in the 2013-2014 season following a loan spell at Stevenage. He signed a 4-year deal in 2014, swiftly followed by an alleged failed 4 million pound bid by QPR being turned down. Later that year, our very own Magpies swooped for the services of Lascelles and his teammate Karl Darlow for a combined fee of 7 million pounds.

A condition of this deal was an understanding that the two players would go back to Forest on loan for one season. Lascelles’ form was hit-and-miss last season largely mirroring Nottingham Forest’s results. In mitigation, it can be pointed out that manager Stuart Pearce made a point of not playing Lascelles for a while, as he wanted to focus on the future of the club’s playing staff. Once Lascelles was given run in the side, it’s fair to say that his form picked up. It’s also fair to say that Stuart Pierce does not have the best reputation as a manager and his mismanagement of what should have been a promotion chasing Nottingham Forest will no doubt have contributed to Lascelles’ poor form at times. This can be evidenced by virtue of Forest leading the Championship table early in the season only to slump to 13th place by January following two victories from 20 games.

The following criticism was levelled at Pearce by Danny Mills: ”Pearce always starts well but goes off the boil. He is very predictable. After 10 games people work him out. I’m not surprised it has happened for him. Stuart Pearce came into Manchester City and had a fantastic ‘Honeymoon Period’ and then went wrong – and did the same with the England Under-21s. He comes in, everyone says ‘wow, it’s Stuart Pearce, legend! Psycho’ and all of that and he has that instant respect. He gets teams going but after a while, players aren’t stupid, they’re not naive and they start to suss him out. He doesn’t have the depth of football ability to back it up. Actually, he is not a great coach, he’s not a great tactician, he’s not a great motivator and he struggles with big players who question his authority.” …..Ouch….

At 21-years-old Lascelles is still young and whilst he has potential, he has not displayed the same kind of promise that the similarly aged Chancel Mbemba has done. Whilst we expect Mbemba to be pushing hard for a place in the first team from the word ‘go’, Lascelles is expected to be more of a squad player that we will need to give controlled Premier League exposure to in order to develop him and unlock that potential. Here is what Stuart Pearce had to say about him and teammate Karl Darlow;

“They are both outstanding lads, without question. Their character is first-class. However, I don’t think they are ready yet to go straight into the Premier League. Both the club and the fans will have to give them time and encouragement. They are potential rather than the finished article. Darlow more or less played in my first-team regularly, but Lascelles not quite so much. He will require a bit more time. However, from their point of view the move is ideal. They weren’t about to play for a Premier League club staying at Forest, but now hopefully they are. Though I fell out with the chairman over the deal, I told both lads they were going to a fantastic football club with passionate fans. I knew that from first-hand experience.” Maybe Pearce is qualified to make that judgement, maybe not – but nobody has seen more of Lascelles than Pearce in recent times, so i’d be inclined to listen to what he has to say in that respect.

It seems Steve McClaren and co. are still looking to sign an established central defender on top of the Chancel Mbemba signing and with the debatable ability but none the less experienced presence of Fabricio Coloccini and Steven Taylor already at the club, it makes sense to assume Jamaal will be back up during his first season with us, ready to make the step up when the contracts of Coloccini and co. expire next summer.

I have heard one or two people mention that this lad may be trouble due to an allegation of assault made against him. This brought back memories of the perennial Nile Ranger troubles further staining the reputation of our club however it was an unwarranted allegation and Lascelles cannot be described as anything other than a good young pro with good character. A statement released by the CPS in April this year: ”Following an in-depth review and careful analysis of the evidence we have taken the decision to discontinue the case. Once we had received and viewed CCTV evidence first-hand, it became apparent that this did not show that the defendant had been responsible for the injuries sustained by the victim.”

In the meantime, we have definitely picked up a promising defender in Lascelles, who is home grown and English (good for squad quota if we ever reach the European competitions again) and has represented England in all of the youth levels. He is considered one of the best young defenders in the Country. A scouting ‘source’ for the Daily Mail has this to say about the lad; ”When I watched him play he had an extra yard of pace for balls in behind him. He could pass and play and build from the back. He was a good size, elegant and composed. Newcastle have got a bargain.’‘ Mr Lascelles has featured regularly so far during Newcastle’s pre-season games and has looked reasonably assured and solid when tested. Certainly one to watch, who should be pushing our first teamers hard before long if he keeps his head down and continues to work hard to improve.

Finally, a word by the man himself; “It’s been excellent so far (since he joined the Newcastle squad). Everyone has been really welcoming, the staff are great and even though I have only been in a day or so, I feel really settled already. Training has been really hard and intense. We did running and fitness testing on the first day, followed by a lot of ball work in the afternoon – possession and passing drills. It’s been tough but everyone looks really sharp. I made sure I kept in shape over the summer. I only came up here for one day last year – to sign – and then was back to Forest straight away. But now I properly feel like a Newcastle United player. I can’t wait to get going, to really get stuck in to training and to play some matches.”

Follow Jamaal Lascelles @Lascelles16

About Shamrock

Like everyone here, support Newcastle United. Not the easiest side to feel good about at times, but it's our side!

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174 thoughts on “Fringe Player Focus – Jamaal Lascelles”

  1. Cheers TAE 🙂 us lot might bicker at times but we look out for each other when infiltrated by Mackems!

    Don’t F wid da.co.uk crew if us kna wotz Gud 4 u blood. Bbbbrrra bbbrrra in’it. Solid. Safe.

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  2. Lascelles COULD get 50+ caps for England and be a mainstay of our defence. He could also be playing Championship football again in 2 years…

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  4. TDS: that was my point and I very much doubt that anybody on here watched much Championship football so making an assessment that Lassa is the future of England, the Empire and Greggs’ Bakery is a stretch if you ask me.

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  5. Yes, Lassa. I have decided to give him a nickname so he can stand on the shoulders of giants like Sir Les and Gazza. It is what he deserves after playing a couple of friendlies for us and playing 5-a-side at an England training camp.

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  6. Agree Eric. I remember all those players who guaranteed would play loads for England…Chopra, Taylor, Huntington, Shola, Streete, Campbell…

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  7. It is a difficult thing to spot talent. Beardsley played for Vancouver Whitecaps, Souness for ‘Boro, Keegan for Skunthorpe, Waddle for what – Spennymoor of somewhere? But Lassa will be an England regular 🙂

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  8. I hope Lascelles comes goods for us… We need him badly going off the others we have vying for a cb position. The others have all had a go to varying sucess/failure but the new guys are going have to step up!
    If he plays well, there is no reason he won’t get an england call up. England needs a successor to Terry and Cahill and he is young enough to develop. Some have mocked a suggestion of this earlier and I find it funny that their opinion of something that hasn’t happened yet is more accurate than an others opinion of something that hasn’t happened yet!

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  9. “he won’t get an england call up”

    Aussie how do you know he wont get an England call up. I cut and paste your exact words. You idiot. :mrgreen:

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  12. My quote of Sharpy was totally in context BTW. But I should drop it now otherwise I will end up being like a snarky Aussie.

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  13. Eric, are you going to post some photos of the meet up with the Chicago Mags in the USA ?

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  17. Eric, try not to be a total hypocrite. .. you are turning into an attention seeking numpty which is pretty much what you spent 3 months accusing Troy of doing! Funny, how you have turned into a poor mans version of him!

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  20. Kim, this is true! 😉

    Eminem, I wouldn’t say excited mate, maybe just quietly confident. What about you?

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  23. If I needed attention from the likes of you Aussie, I would really have major problems. Stick to your own knitting.

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  25. Kim, you got it in one mate 😉

    AMF I’m pleasantly surprised with the way the transfer market has gone so far, and look forward to having the Congo lad signed up cos he looks like an awesome athlete, though perhaps not a traditional centre half as such.
    At the same time the USA trip has been disappointing, because we have performed so poorly. Some punters say “yeah it’s preseason”…but to be honest we need to pick up the intensity big time, and we only have a few weeks before season kicks off.

    I also reckon we need major surgery on our squad, too much deadwood who are just not good enough, though they’ll be moved on next season when contracts run down etc. The new additions are the first step in a bigger overhaul of the squad imo.
    Am also curious to see whether McLaren’s training methods improve the team as a unit compared to the Pardew era…

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  26. Eric are you going to give us the juicy bits about your visit to watch the toon in the USA ? 😉

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  27. Eminem, the big lift for me this season is the Pardew era is over…fuk there was some poisonous football played under his stewardship… great that we have new players, but the proper coaching of the rest is critical!

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  29. AMF time will show how we perform.

    I think the issue is there are massive game changing players who cost an absolute fortune ala Di Maria, Rooney, Ibrahimovich, Aguero, Ronaldo etc etc …
    Due to the massive amounts of Sky money being thrown around the average international now land in the 8 – 10 million pound price bracket, which is a massive amount of money, but in the overinflated football world average as such…

    We have done fastically well to pick up the likes Janmaat and Sissoko for “peanuts”, hopefully we have found another startlet in the Congo lad from Anderlecht, though as yet I haven’t seen him waving the toon scarf above his head and kissing the badge. Work visa problems perhaps ?

    I reckon Austin will arrive too, Charnley is playing the big tactical game with QPR, and when there are 15 million spondoolicks on the table then it’s understandable that the bean-counters tread wearily. I reckon he’ll be our man eventually, and we can reluctantly let Cisse fulfill his dream of one last mega pay day with the arabs.

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  30. Prem@103, dead right our defence is gash, and tbh it hasn’t improved much this pre-season… 🙄

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  31. With Mbemba being so quick, I’m hoping we’ll play the ball out with pace for quick counters rather than the panic hoofs of last season.

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  32. KT the footage I’ve seen of the lad he looks like a brilliant ball player. Maybe a right back in the making, cos playing centre half in the epl is a tough issue, especially defending dead balls.
    You only need to see how difficult things are when you watch Sissoko and Willo try to head the ball. They are both 12 foot tall and can’t head a ball to save there lives 🙄 🙄

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  33. Strange that the club haven’t announced the Mbemba signing yet. The PR shots have been done – I saw the pic of him with the shirt on .com on Thursday. It then promptly disappeared so obviously it was released prematurely. Must be work permit stuff.

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  35. 16 in the H2H league now. 4 places still open (I’ve increased the limit to 20 teams).

    Code 298856-79420 Join us:

    Brisvegas, Richietoon, Sharpy, Shamrock, PremandUp, DubaiToon, MDS, Beardsleys Boots, Toondarnsarf, Hitman, Aussie Magpie Fan, Newkie, Axel.

    All names I recognise as regular commenters on this blog.

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  36. MM @101: I will send Shamrock a picture. I wrote a match report on an earlier thread. I will find it and repost it here.

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  37. I’m enjoying listening to our manager (head coach) being interviewed again. His plans for the future, Improving PR, Style of play, what he’s learned from the successes & failures.

    He has come over really well as have Simpson & Cathro. After four years of Pardews drivel, Kinnears spell as DOF and the constant chopping and changing before them it’s been refreshing.

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  41. CC@112, I think all the individuals mentioned in your post can talk the talk. Time will show if they can also walk the walk…hopefully we will see better times ahead…
    Absolutely ANYTHING is better than those last months with John Carver…
    We may be showing signs of behaving like a serious Football Club now…with everyone finally pulling in the same direction, and most significantly the owner putting his hand in his pocket !

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  42. Well I see there have been no job offers for Carver or Stone anywhere,isn’t that strange 😆

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  44. This is quite funny from Ryder:

    http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/steve-mcclarens-first-six-weeks-9726843?

    Five things he always says:

    1. Now Ryder is Schteve’s biggest fanboy when he was earlier Ugly John’s fanboy, cheerleader and ars@licker.

    2. Why does everything have to come in fives now for Lee?

    3. Ryder changes like the wind.

    4. Ryder is actually trying to talk about football and tactics for once in the article and not just writing formulaic tripe. Well done Lee, 5 points for Gryffindor.

    5. I don’t really have a 5th point about Lee Ryder’s inane writing skills.

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  46. From the article @ 119 i just posted:

    “The good vibes from the camp in the US came from players Steven Taylor, Mike Williamson, Jack Colback, Gael Bigirmana, Karl Darlow, new boy Gini Wijnaldum and Rolando Aarons.”

    Williamson, good vibes? Seriously, he will still be in the squad? Another Manager (head coach) will still pick Willo??? You have to question their skill at their job if they do that.

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  47. I want McClaren to succeed, really I do. But sacking Willo should be the 1st thing on his agenda.

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  48. Well I see a fair bit talk that toon are after Dolan I bloody hope not,yes a scored a few last season but in two seasons before that he scored two goals,is he a one season wonder?I smell another Riv here

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  50. I wonder if the Mbemba deal is held up because we are waiting on a sale of one of our players. ? It reminds me of the Janmaat – Debuchy deal….

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  54. 5 things Steve McClaren should do on Monday morning:

    1: Shut Willo up

    2. Pack Willo’s bags for him

    3. Sack Willo.

    4. Drive him to Oldham and throw away his car keys.

    5. Drown him so that we are certain he will never come back to NUFC.

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  55. Icedog@117, I’m sure I read somewhere that Stone is between jobs and filling in as summer break at Greggsys in Blakelaw…
    He just completed his FIFA Pasty/Stotty Cake badge….

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  56. You have to question their sanity when they pick Willo. There should be a sanity clause. But, as the Marx Brother’s said – there ain’t no sanity clause.

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  57. More from Ryder in his article @119 above:

    “Hurt by criticism last season during the club’s slide down the table Krul seems to (be) determined to prove his doubters wrong.”

    Totally justified criticism about Timmy-the-Hoof. He watched about f-ing 8 shots just sail past him into the net FFS, whilst making a hapless dive to stop them. And did I say he has a tendency to hoof?

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  58. Ice 😛 I have my suspicions, the sale will be about player numbers and not coin.. 😉

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  59. Simon Bird ‏@SimonBird_ · Jul 23
    What a lovely surprise to meet #Nufc legend and Peru coach Nobby Solano in the park. His little boy (4) has inherited his skills!

    Sign his lad up now Lee, it’s never too soon 😉

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  60. Bris what’s confusing about the link? You just click it then register or sign in?! If people can’t work that out then they have no chance selecting a team and altering it from week to week!

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  61. Santon just crossed the ball with his left foot playing at right back, He must have played 100+ matches for us at left back and I can’t remember play using his left foot once 🙄

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  62. Shamrock: It’s the layout that I find confusing, the navigation of the site, the way the transfers are set out, and, well, just about everything.

    The other link gives a wholly different layout. Maybe I’m just used to it that way, but it seems much easier to navigate.

    Is there a tech person on the blog who can tell us what the m. in the url means/does?

    Shamrock’s url http://m.fantasy.premierleague.com
    My url http://fantasy.premierleague.com

    They take you to different places, or maybe they are different versions of the same place, but they look very different. Well, they do on my computer.

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  64. Sham, Talking of confusing, I will probably stick to sending Dave or you( if you email me your contact details) my articles as I don’t think I will be able to set up the article myself.

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  65. No probs Kim. I can’t email you because you don’t seem to be registered on the site?

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  70. So have we signed Mbemba yet? We do normally take our time to announce signings but this is taking the ****!

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  72. Alreet folks, just back from a week in the Lakes. Canny but the Wifi connections were gash. Still, I was on long enough to inspire one of Eric’s ‘moments’ last night 😆

    Stu – I was just about to ask the same question mate. I wonder if the club delay the announcements waiting for all the paperwork to go through & get the all clear on things like work permits. May be the fear of looking like numpties if there’s a problem having already announced it. Just a thought – or am I making excuses again 😕 😆

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  74. Ice – you’re right, there is a lot of mention of Rolan today. Hope that is just column filling though.
    Was it you that posted something from Twitter about Matip & Shakira the other day? – out more on those ones mate?

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