Chelsea look set to get their hands on future generations of north east talent after striking a deal with one of the region’s top junior sides.
A Daily Mail exclusive claims that Newcastle City Juniors, based in the city’s west end, will begin an ‘affiliation’ with the London club in the aftermath of stricter regulations being placed on foreign imports due to Brexit.
New rules mean that clubs will be forbidden from signing overseas players until they turn 18, and Chelsea are the first big side to exploit the changes to the system.
This means that Newcastle may no longer be able to cherry-pick players from a junior club that gave them the likes of Adam Armstrong – meaning a potentially huge blow to the academy setup.
The Benwell based club are situated at Newcastle United’s old training ground at Gibside Gardens, a site that was used by our team until 2003.
The Mail’s piece suggests that Chelsea will look to park their tanks on the lawns of other big clubs by having bases across the country – no doubt to the expense of lesser clubs like ourselves.
It remains to be seen whether the FA will introduce restrictions to prevent big sides from gaining even more of a monopoly over the rest of us, but this feels like the sort of forward-thinking move we’d never see at Newcastle United.
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