England eye NUFC duo – & Gareth Southgate a big fan of ‘exciting’ youngster – Report

According to The Athletic’s Chris Waugh, Newcastle duo Isaac Hayden and Sean Longstaff are both being tracked by England ahead of a potential international call up.

There’s no mention of Jamaal Lascelles and Jonjo Shelvey – two players who were tipped for a call up during impressive 2017/18 campaigns – however Southgate has recently confirmed that Freddie Woodman is one of the young goalkeepers on his radar, describing him as an ‘exciting’ talent.

As for Hayden and Longstaff, it’s good to hear both are being rewarded for their performances over 2019.

While Longstaff’s sudden rise from U-23 talent to first-team regular has been the story making the headlines, it’s great to see Hayden is getting recognition for his outstanding displays this year.

He’s arguably been our most consistent performer of 2019 and deserves to be knocking on Southgate’s door – especially when the former Boro boss was regularly calling up the Jake Livermore’s of this world not so long ago!

Longstaff has had a mixed start to the season and has shown some signs of ring rust after suffering a serious knee injury in March, but England won’t have forgotten his stunning form earlier in the year.

Two players they seem to have forgotten about are Jamaal Lascelles and Jonjo Shelvey, however.

The skipper kept Harry Kane quiet in our superb 1-0 win at Spurs just a few weeks ago, but there’s a feeling that his lack of ball playing skills could scupper his hopes of being called up by Southgate – no matter how well he defends. That said, there’s hope for him yet if Villa’s Tyrone Mings is getting a call after a few decent displays.

Then to Shelvey. We all know how talented he is, but the fact he wasn’t called up during the back end of the 2017/18 season (when he was in the form of his life!) makes you wonder if he’ll ever get another chance? Disciplinary issues are no longer a valid excuse, but his inconsistent form and inability to become a regular in our side doesn’t exactly make him a valid candidate as thing stand.

(Fancy writing for us? Send any articles/ideas over to us at [email protected] & we’ll get back to you!)

About Olly Hawkins

As a Junior Magpie since birth and season ticket holder, I eat, sleep and breathe all things NUFC! Here at the blog, I aim to bring you news, views, match reports and transfer exclusives as and when I get them.

2 thoughts on “England eye NUFC duo – & Gareth Southgate a big fan of ‘exciting’ youngster – Report

  1. Interesting 180 for the site there Olly. It can’t be more than a day or two since you had an article on here claiming that the only reason Lascelles and Shelvey weren’t picked for England was because they played for the Toon, then suddenly THREE Toon players are being considered for England.

    I can only see 2 possibilities here.

    The first is that that the article posted was a complete load of shlte posted by a delusional Toon fan who wouldn’t recognise quality if it nibbled on his nuts. i.e. Lascelles and Shelvey just were not good enough and didn’t fit in with Southgate’s style of play.

    The second possibility is that the article posted here was such a hard hitting revelation that once Southgate had read it he was so deeply embarrassed that he changed his mind about selecting Toon players and immediately contacted Chris Waugh to spread the word that he is now a reformed character. That’s the same Chris Waugh whose only scoop in 4 years working for the Chronicle was the one he used to dish out the ice cream at lunch time.

    Now lets havea think about this. Which one is it?

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  2. Brrrian:
    Interesting 180 for the site there Olly. It can’t be more than a day or two since you had an article on here claiming that the only reason Lascelles and Shelvey weren’t picked for England was because they played for the Toon, then suddenly THREE Toon players are being considered for England.

    I can only see 2 possibilities here.

    The first is that that the article posted was a complete load of shlte posted by a delusional Toon fanwho wouldn’t recognise quality if it nibbled on his nuts. i.e. Lascelles and Shelvey just were not good enough and didn’t fit in with Southgate’s style of play.

    The second possibility is that the article posted here was such a hard hitting revelation that once Southgate had read it he was so deeply embarrassed that he changed his mind about selecting Toon players and immediately contacted Chris Waugh to spread the word that he is now a reformed character. That’s the same Chris Waugh whose only scoop in 4 years working for the Chronicle was the one he used to dish out the ice cream at lunch time.

    Now lets haveathink about this. Which one is it?

    ‘Tracking’ NUFC players and calling them up are two totally different things.

    As for you saying Lascelles doesn’t suit England’s style of play, you must have missed the point about Mings being exactly the same. He’s the same mould as Lascelles and not a ball player at all – yet he’s called up after 4 good PL games….despite the fact Lascelles didn’t get one call up over an entire season where he barely put a foot wrong.

    Also, reporting on ‘news’ is much different to contributors expressing their opinion.

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