Who’s looking after the kids?

Home grown talent. Do we make the most of it?
Home grown talent. Do we make the most of it?
With reports last week suggesting Newcastle are looking to offload 5 players,( Mike Williamson, and Yoan Gouffran being the most high profile names) It is disappointing to see Gael Bigirimana, Mehdi Abeid and Haris Vuckic on that list. Disappointing because I’m sure we all had high hopes for those particular 3 to hopefully develope into players capable of turning out on a regular basis for our first team.

Quite why our academy and young prospects don’t make the grade is open to question. Is it the fault of our local scouts? or the level of coaching? Maybe the players themselves just never reach the potential fit for Premier League football, perhaps it’s a combination of all the above. What ever the reason there does genuinely seem to be a lot of work going into these young lads start in football.

In April this year the Chronicle was given access to the Academy and the academy manager Joe Joyce and also head of academy education Darren Derwent, and It produced an interesting article as a result and well worth a read if you are interested in what goes on there. Click here if interested.

I guess we all have to be realistic about how many young players will make the grade. We think of past talents to of come out of Newcastle, but you don’t get too many superstars popping up all the time, it’s more likely one every decade or so. We were fortunate to see the likes of Shearer and Gazza playing in the same era but it’s rare to see that. Yes, you’ll see lots of talented local lads play all across the Premier League but how many are real ‘super stars’ like Shearer or Gazza for instance?

In the case of Gael Bigirimana, we took this lad from Coventry City where he had won Championship apprentice of the year and on first viewing looked a real prospect. Yet after a total of just 25 senior appearances for Newcastle anda loan to Rangers whilst injured, he is now seemingly deemed surplus to requirement.

Then there is Haris Vuckic, another hot prospect when he signed at just 17 years of age. This lad was seen as one of the top youngsters in Europe, reports saying he had been eyed up by Real Madrid before we signed him. Fast Forward from 2009 to the present day and he has been Loaned to Cardiff City, Rotherham and was part of the 5 we loaned to Rangers last season. He did pretty well at Rangers and scored 10 goals for them before returning to Newcastle. To be fair the lad has been beset by injuries which has resulted in a stop start career for him. He has had plenty of stand out performances for Newcastle during his time with us most notably the memorable 4.3 win against Chelsea in the 3rd round of the league cup and again in the 4th round 4.0 loss to Arsenal where he got MOTM despite Newcastle losing the match. He won an additional five and a half year contract after impressing but it seems to of all come to nothing in the end in so far as his career with Newcastle is concerned.

Next on the list is Mehdi Abeid. Signed up to a 5 year contract in 2011 aged 18, he has been loaned to St Johnson where he made 12 appearances and in july 2013 went to Panathinaikos, where he made 28 appearances and scored 7 goals. He won pludits for his play there and helped them win the Greek cup. He made his premier league debut some 3 years after joining Newcastle having only featured in the cup competitions previously. Last season he made 13 Premier League appearances and looked pretty good in a some to be fair, he seemed stronger and in my personal opinion i think he could do well for us given half a chance. All the same if reports are true, he’s on the list to go.

So where does that leave us in terms of bringing youngsters through, the above three , so full of promise at first now deemed not up to scratch. Yet as outlined two of those players have done well at other clubs, so is it the physicality and pace of the Premier League that scuppers them or are they just not all that, as they say?
And what of the new prospects coming through. We have seen young Perez go straight into the first team even though he was bought in to develope and he’s done very well. Top marks to Carr and co there, but what of Adam Armstrong,now on loan at Coventry City, will he come back Premier League ready? We released Adam Campbell, now at Notts county so his early promise also came to nothing. Then there is Satka and Mbabu two defenders we could do with really progressing and talking of defenders will Curtis Good EVER be fit again?

There is also the strange case of Olivier Kemen, the combatative midfielder is now apparently wanted by the likes of Liverpool ,Spurs and AC Milan yet Newcastle are said to have reservations about his first team potential. To be fair that was the view of Carver and Stone and Steve McClaren has yet to run the rule over him having not seen much of him in pre-season. Lets hope we don’t lose a possible gem there.
There are of course positives in the respect that we have some very promising young players like Rolando Aarons looking like he can be very special if he can stay injury free albeit we nicked him off Bristol. And Paul Dummett could improve under Steve McClaren and the coaches. Freddie Woodman is catching the eye as a promising young keeper and lets hope he does well while on loan at Crawley Town. We’ve Also just added young Ivan Toney from Northampton Town, he looks a promising young forward who scored 13 times for Northampton, but there are no guarantees he’ll progress to Premier League level.

On the horizon we have Alex Gilliead, Tom Heardman, Liam Smith,Kyle Cameron, Dan Barlaser, Adam Laidler,Callum Roberts,Jamie Cobain,Callum Williams,Brendan Pearson, Liam Gibson,Macaulay Gillesphey and Jamie Sterry.

We can only hope someone is looking after the kids and that there is a budding new Geordie hero in amongst that bunch. What are your views on the Newcastle youth prospects, do any of you attend u21 and u18 games? and if you do ,who do you consider a future star?
Talking of the future, I cannot seem to find out if work has actually started on the new Academy building, which was due to commence in may this year. Does anyone know what’s happening there?

Kimtoon

127 thoughts on “Who’s looking after the kids?

  1. Good article Kim

    The academy will only produce top players seldomly capable of playing premier league football long term.

    Andy Carroll being an example where one player could fund an academy for a decade until the next one comes along. 90% will produce players capable of playing in lower leagues and still there’s a healthy profit to be made.

    Academies are vital to produce youngsters, not necessarily for your own club. The rich clubs just pick the best prospects like cherries.

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  2. Anyway, I say we all just stop thinking about soccer for a minute and just lick my fucking balls.

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  3. Rodz

    I’ve been playing around with your name and made a perfect anagram using all the letters.

    Armadillo 😯

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  4. Good read Kim. The PL is one of the 3 highest calibre football leagues in world football. Only the cream will rise to the top. We can’t expect a constant stream of our academy players to make the step up, but it’s frustrating watching the likes of Vuckic, Sammy, Abeid come so close and not quite get there. Heidara, Dummett, Krul, Saylor , Aaron’s all in the 1st team squad with Armstrong doing well in the lower leagues. It’s not a bad haul, but could be better. If we want to produce elite footballers, we need elite facilities, top notch youth scouts and grade A youth coaches. In the meantime we will have to do with our current success rates. Carroll being the most recent big success story from a Toon point of view shows we are still capable of producing the odd gem.

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  5. Kim – good article, and you’re right about those 3 players in particular. They showed promise which just doesn’t seem to have came off, but I think that will be the case with lots of academies up & down the Country to be fair. But these players go on to have decent enough careers in lower leagues – James Tavenier scored for Rangers at the weekend I see.
    I think if we can bring the likes of Dummett, Aarons & Armstrong through – they are 3 good players for the squad.

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  6. …and answer me this, riddle-de-dee…

    WHY DO SOME DOGS LOOK LIKE CHICKEN?

    Upper or lower case, you started it.

    What?!

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  7. I’m really pleased with how Armas doing, I hope he stays with them the full season and not just until Jan as reported. This goalscoring run he’s on will be great for his confidence and will be the making of him imo. I also want to see us tie down Aarons to a longer deal too.
    Thanks for the feedback.

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  8. I go to both when I can. A couple of years ago I picked out Arma, Aarons, Kemen and Callum Roberts as ones to watch. I’ve seen a lot of Arma and have no doubt he will be a star. Aarons looks on track to make it. Strangely, the one I was never really sure about was Kemen, who lacks a good first touch, yet appears to be high profile just now. Roberts is a work in progress, but he’s a tricky winger who sees chances to be created and tries to make it happen. Of all of them, young Arma is the real jewel in the crown. Destined for greatness imo, so much so that when he was still 16 I had a bet on him to break Charlton’s England record. Wait and see eh?

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  9. Good article.

    I actually agree with Troy. It’s not that often you get a frequent flow of Premier League calibre players through the academy. Last time it happened for us was Carroll. Before that?

    But it’s the same at a lot of clubs. The last one to really make a success out of it was Man U who had a once in a generation group come through which then set them up but now look at their youngsters coming through. Again not many ho on to establish themselves in the side.

    With Armstrong I’m not convinced. He’s got talent and can score in reserves/youth/league one but in the Premier League it’s a different animal and it’s his size that I think will hold him back. I hope I’m wrong mind.

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  10. Thanks Kim
    Good Read
    Not much to add as I’ve hardly seen these players.
    But the gap up is big. You only have to look at how CCC teams rebuild for the EPL.
    It’s difficult for managers to give players the time to make the grade in the first team. Can’t afford to drop points.
    Hopefully an interesting day ahead

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  11. Cheers Kim.

    A real failure (another) of the club in my opinion over the last few years. We haven’t really had one player come through and be a consistent 1st team player. Hoping Dummet and Armstrong change that and there’s high hopes for a few others but there’s been high hopes on many who have failed to progress.

    Always wonder how Middlesbrough, Southampton and West Ham can all produce better youngsters than us. A crying shame actually.

    Personally I think it’s down to lack of investment in facilities, lack of quality coaches and the ridiculous ban on looking at youngsters outside a 30 mile radius.

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  12. Prem – A slightly ridiculous table to be honest. Last season them 5 were forced upon us due to unprecedented injuries and suspensions and it could be argued non of them were/are good enough.

    I rember Middlesbrough having more academy graduates than any other team one season – problem was they got relegated!

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  13. The problem we have is those academy players who eventually make it and are put into our first team, for example Dummet, they are average premier league standard. That’s partly why we find ourselves struggling each season.

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  14. Prem

    That table tells us nothing about the quality coming through, as rightly pointed out, we nearly got relegated.

    Where are those players now?

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  15. wasnt arrons one of the five and wernt some on here in uproar for not offering arrons a big contract,why if hes not ready.
    this is a big problem for all clubs,last weekend there was only 72 english players that played in the prem.

    good read kim

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  16. good read kim.

    As Toonsy said, the prem is a different animal, some of the player mentioned did well elsewhere but they need to make the step-up .

    I though Abeid was close but it also depends on the manager and his style of play. Also, whether we can risk bedding players in over a season when money is available to buy the quality needed.

    Once we do bed them in we need to keep them, Aarons being the first to be offered an improved contract.

    I reckon Arma will eventually find footy in the Championship

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  17. The problem is that clubs like ours who can’t compete with the bigger clubs financially we should be making more of an effort to produce our own. That’s one way that doesn’t cost an earth and can make a real difference – ask Southampton!

    As for Aarons he arrived from Bristol didn’t he?

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  18. Good article Kim
    To me it stands out we need to bring in some quality coaches who specialise with the youth team. Hoping we have some good ones now for the 1st team and that was needed and urgent. Now let’s get some in to work with the kids and get them ready for the step up to start working with who we have brought in now. Think it will be a good couple of years before we get it totally right, but let’s start working on it now

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  19. Stu, Yep Aarons came up from Bristol. He was at Bristol Academy then City took him on then Toon took him. He was talked about a lot down here well before City took him on. I know some folk who know him and they reckon you could see he was a PL player in the making. IF he can stay focused and injury free then he could do really well imo.
    As I understand it from what I have read, with the really young ones they try to just pick lads from around the NE only. Is that not what Southampton do too? not sure but Pards was on about them and how ‘smart’ their kids are. 🙄

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  20. Has work started on the new Academy or what? I can’t find a thing about any building work and not living up there I wouldn’t know. It was meant to start in May this year.

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  21. So Austin deal won’t happen because he wants a 5 year contract. Strange one that! How about we look at the present instead of constantly looking at only the future? It’s not done us too well so far has it…

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  22. Kim – The new training facility was postponed. Shock of shocks! Another prediction bang on. 😯

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  23. @34

    Assuming that’s said tongue in cheek considering how wrong you got the Carver situation & this transfer window

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  24. Stu, well they knew by the end of may so I don’t see why it’s not happening 😕 everything is at a snails pace it seems

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  25. Stuart @22
    That may be so. But surly that is the purpose of having the Kids in the squad in the first place. To cover injuries and suspensions and to see if they are good enough. The fact that they were there is to complimented.

    I may be wrong, but I remember reading that the kids offered places at EPL academies represented the top 1% in the country and that 65% of them would be discarded by 21. And of those only a handful would have careers at the higher levels of football.

    The point I am trying to make is that it is a failing not only of the NUFC academy, but is endemic across football. To single out NUFC when it is not the worst by any means appears somewhat mean spirited ?

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  26. Nice article, Kim.
    My take on this is that our expectations are unreasonably high. I’m not saying the academy isn’t in need of improvement, but one or two 1st-teamers every five years is probably about normal. We just need to set the bar right.
    I am disappointed to see Bigi, Vukic and Abeid go, though – all good guys but there are far more experienced people than us who have had years to assess them and clearly they think their level is lower than the PL and we need to clear squad numbers.

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  27. I suppose hitmans point about only 72 English/british players playing in the PL this weekend sums up the overall quality that is progressing from Academies and up through the lower leagues. It comes back to the argument about too many foreign imports in the PL again, there can be no doubt it stifles possible progression of English players from academies and the lower leagues.

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  28. Mean spirited it may be but in my opinion we don’t give ourselves a chance with the lack of investment, talented coaches and restrictions on recruitment.

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  29. Interesting article about Thauvin vs Cabella

    http://frenchfootballweekly.com/2015/08/18/florian-thauvin-and-the-newcastle-united-conundrum/

    A few choice claims:
    “Played properly in the right team, Cabella will be a star, but his move to Newcastle was always going to be the wrong player, in the wrong team, in the wrong league. Marseille fans will welcome Cabella with open arms and the France international will likely go on to dazzle the Stade Velodrome faithful.”

    “When Cabella first went to Newcastle, he was lauded as the next superstar to leave the French league. Problems with his physique were anticipated by French experts, but no one had a bad word to say against his abilities. Conversely, even the most optimistic Ligue 1 journalists are finding it hard to rate Thauvin’s chances of being a success in the Premier League.

    From Newcastle’s view, it’s a risk, but they will see it as one worth taking. If Steve McLaren doesn’t fancy Cabella, there is no point keeping him around to play a bit-part role. Buying Thauvin, despite paying over the odds, gives NUFC a player that will fit their system better and offer wide options on either flank.”

    “Marseille are without doubt receiving the best end of the deal. They are gaining money back on an dreadfully out-of-form player they bought two years ago without ever excelling, plus they are picking up an international and Ligue 1 winner in his place.

    Before Cabella came Hatem Ben Arfa, and now Newcastle United are putting a lot of faith on the shaky shoulders of Florian Thauvin.”

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  30. How times change: Ed reading from the Book of Stu:

    “If you don’t strengthen the team in the right (the weakest) places you don’t really strengthen the team.”

    @CC 😀 Don’t let facts get in the way of a good ego! Just a jocular dig, Stu. 😀

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  31. I have read a few articles on Thauvin and he is supposed to be good at set pieces. We have needed that for almost as long as we have needed a tall, pacy centre back and almost as long as Daryl Janmaat has needed a brain.

    I am not really sure how Steve could have assessed Cabella though and found him surplus to requirements. Cabella has been injured for the whole time McClaren has been here and I wouldn’t judge anybody that had to play for Carver, and especially Pardew who would have had him practicing at left back.

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  32. Thanks Kim..
    CC , I remember Stu bragging about putting money on Carver being our coach this season! 😆 bang on! 😆

    As far as Thauvin goes, you can see that Mclarens game plan is to attack fast down the flanks and get bodies into the box for a cross.. so the signing does fall into McLarens game style. Hope the lad does better than Cabella..

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  33. The bloke I have had a bet with that we will finish 8th, has predicted, after watching the number of chances Man U created last night, that will lose 17-0 on Saturday!! I think he was only half joking. 😆

    Come on, Memphis, take a breather lad, don’t want to burn yourself out too early in the season. 😀

    I beginning to think that Janmaat wasn’t stupid or selfish after all, he was taking one for the team. He knew we’d be best without him. Good lad.

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  34. AMF: if Thauvin can take a corner without hitting the first man that would be a major improvement. I think we have tried everybody we have at that job, including Dummett.

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  35. I could crack a corner over the first man more often than our lot.. it actually is not that hard..

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  36. Think Chelsea will have annoyed Man Utd a tad. They’ve just hijacked their move for Pedro…

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  37. Is it actually on, Stu. Was interested about that one, think he will better off at Chelsea – he’ll get regular game time in his preferred position.

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  38. Wow! Aussie has recovered from the standing 8 against all odds! Let’s knock him, he’s comeback with a teasing jab. 😆

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  39. 4 goals conceded in 2 games. Our defence is really on fire this season. We got Colo fucking Cini so everything’s fine!

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  40. I fear the worst on Saturday. We’ll just see how seriously under strength we are. Metrovic has to step up to the mark.!

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  41. Man U have only had 1 shot on target so far in the PL (Rooney, none). Playing against our defense should remedy that.

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  42. Apart from a few matches with Aarons playing, our wide left options last season were Cabella, Sammy, Gouffran, Obertan & Jonas

    A natural, pacey, skillful left footed winger who can take set pieces fits the bill, I’d like to have seen Cabella in a less rigid style but I can see why they have done the deal

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  43. Stuart I suppose I should be grateful that we only have -2 goal difference so far.

    Troy, Colocini has everything sorted at the back, nothing is getting past him or our defence on saturday. It is defiantly worth the trip to old trafford mate.

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  44. Was just reading that French writer’s take on Thauvin. Sounds like he made his name for club and country when deployed on the left in an attacking role. Struggled at Marseille when deployed on the right and given a lot of defensive responsibilities. Might make some sense if SM uses him in his preferred role.

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  45. cabella did do a lot defensively (or was asked to under Pardew, like every other winger)
    SM system 4-2-3-1 will have Thauvin doing a little less Id imagine.

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  46. 4-2-3-1

    Jan – Mbemba – Colo – Haidara

    Tiote – Sissoko

    Aarons- Gini – Thauvin

    Mitrovic

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  47. The Cabella signing I think showed the disconnect between awards and the boardroom. He just didn’t fit under Pards.

    That disconnect appears to have changed. SM like to play with a physical CF…in comes Mitrovic. He likes CBs that can play the ball out of the back….in comes Mbemba. He likes versatile mids that can slide between attacking and box to box roles…in comes Wijnaldam. Based on that I have to think Thauvin fits what he want out of a left sided attacker

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  48. Funnily enough with our two full backs inability to defend maybe they need a little bit of help from the wide men.

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  49. lol thats what I was thinking Stu. SM has the right formation and attacking ideas on paper but our defensive is still vulnerable and the weakest link

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