The Young Ones.

[Christmas Tree 4827]

How will Newcastle United find Europe’s next big thing?

 

 

AND now for their next trick. Having cracked the French market Newcastle United are now preparing to take one of football’s hardest tasks – importing teenage players of sufficient quality and character to take care of the next generation.

 

The signing of Servette’s Kevin Mbabu, a 17-year-old defender of terrific promise, might not have captured the imagination of the Tyneside public in the same way that Moussa Sissoko did but it was extremely significant. The first of a planned influx of recruits into the development team, Mbabu represents the initial phase of Mike Ashley’s next big project.

 

United, you see, have embarked on a recruitment drive that they hope will staff their squad with some of the best talent in Europe. It is an open secret in France, where Newcastle began this project in earnest last month. Their requirements are two-fold: they must be born between 1991 and 1993 and they must have the talent and mentality to cope with eventually playing for Newcastle’s first team.

 

They want eight or nine more to go with Mbabu, and might have had another addition in January if they’d managed to smuggle Florian Thauvin out of Bastia before deadline day. He went to Lille despite an offer in the region of £3million being tabled for a player with only 35 games under his belt – a definite sign that Ashley is serious about his next big project.

 

French sources tasked with finding the next tranche of Magpies stars have told The Journal of Newcastle wanting to create a trio of distinct groups in a move that would be a significant development of their colour-coded strategy. They will retain the “purples” – those players who are considered first-team regulars – but there will be more colour coded groups below them, one of emerging players who can be promoted into the first team at any time and another that features mostly 16 and 17-year-olds that should be ready in a couple of years’ time.

 

In the second of the three groups would be designed for the likes of Gael Bigirimana, Adam Campbell, Michael Richardson, Curtis Good and Massaido Haidara – who can step up if need be. In the third group, Mbabu is a trail-blazer but he will be joined by others.

 

It’s an interesting project but United fans might think they’ve been here before. Signing the best teenagers from around the globe is nothing new but the problem in the past has been that a few have failed to capitalise on promising starts in black and white.

 

They are not alone there – and the Premier League is littered with stories of players who promised the world but ended up not quite delivering.

 

It is a high stakes game, but one that is certainly worth the bother if it comes off. Think of Cesc Fabregas at Arsenal: plucked from Barcelona’s La Masia Academy at the age of 16 for a seven-figure fee.

 

It was a risky piece of business for Arsene Wenger, who had no guarantees about the midfielder’s future prospects when he sanctioned the daring raid for the Spaniard.

 

Some 303 games later, the Gunners sold him back to the Catalan giants for nearly £30million.

 

Think, too, of Tim Krul at Newcastle. United identified him as a potential Holland goalkeeper at the age of just 17 and paid Den Haag around £200,000 for him. Eight years on, Krul is firmly established as Newcastle’s number one and so integrated in the squad that last week he was dubbed an honorary Geordie by Press men counting up the number of English players left in the United squad.

 

Those two players are exceptional talents, though – blessed with technical ability and the strength of character to battle myriad obstacles that stand in front of young players and a coveted place in the starting line-up. For others, the hurdles have proved too steep. Think of Fabio Zamblera and Tamas Kadar at Newcastle, or Frenchman Jean-Yves Mvoto at Sunderland.

 

Recruited as promising youngsters with the potential to take the step up, their promise ultimately dissolved into nothing. Their stories are all-too-familiar for those involved in the North East’s Academies, with many more like them failing to adapt to the culture or simply believing they had made it as soon as they arrived on these shores.

 

 

 

Read more: Journal Live http://www.journallive.co.uk/nufc/newcastle-united-news/2013/02/05/how-will-newcastle-united-find-europe-s-next-big-thing-61634-32749627/2/#ixzz2K23thg1h

 

 

 

[RobH 0]

Not quite the same as signing Fabregas from La Masia for seven figure fees as that article tries to make out. However if it means we get some youngsters who look like thye could push the first team then it's all good by me.

[Tooj 17]

No mention of Shane?

[Christmas Tree 4827]

No mention of Shane?

 

Who?

[sniffer 0]

Or the skinny ameobi.

[scoobos 298]

Yeah, I'm not so sure this "youth" plan is working. That said, their are a couple of exceptions - but most of our youth targets are a bit too unproven for me.

[Kid Dynamite 7171]

Zamblera

[PaddockLad 17654]

Zamblera

They mention him in the article, which also says correctly that this is nothing new, which is strange as the whole piece has an air of "fuck me look at what they're doing now!!" about it

[sniffer 0]

I'm not sure if we just sign kids that don't have what it takes in the first place, or if we sign kids that have the ability but we fuck them up because we have poor coaches at that level. I suppose the yardstick is how we stack up to other clubs using a common metric over say a ten year period.

 

If ameobi is the leader of the pack, as Pardew said, then the youth system isn't producing much with little ROI.

[OTF 7489]

Newcastle's new tactic is to re-use the old tactic that didn't work the first time but it might this time. Odd article, especially when it goes so far back as Krul.

[Howay 12496]

The Fabregas mention is a bit odd too seeing as he almost went straight into their first team and Barca were gutted to lose him, not sure it was a big gamble.

[Happy Face 29]

Wasn't the whole aim of the Premier League academy clubs that they pick their youth from a 30 mile radius?

 

Are we going against the FA/Premier league in ignoring that and looking to foreign youth?

 

Is this why we failed to pick up accreditation?

[David Kelly 1260]

Wasn't the whole aim of the Premier League academy clubs that they pick their youth from a 30 mile radius?

 

Are we going against the FA/Premier league in ignoring that and looking to foreign youth?

 

Is this why we failed to pick up accreditation?

We haven't failed yet have we? Didn't it come out that it was bollocks that we'd missed out and it wasn't finalised until April or something?

Anyway we've been trying this for years whether it with foreign kids like Zambrella or English ones like Spear. It certainly appears that either our initial scouting or out coaching is flawed because we've not been getting much payback from it. Krul would be the only player I can really think of that we brought into the academy and has come through to be a first team regular. I suppose you could say N'Zogbia but I think he was pretty much straight in and around the first team.

[Happy Face 29]

Krul would be the only player I can really think of that we brought into the academy and has come through to be a first team regular.

 

Carroll too, but not brought in from abroad.

 

I think our academy would be viwed as a success. 99% of academy footballers will not make it at the top level. It's accepted everywhere. They are only brought in as Flotsam for the 1% that do have a chance, just bodies for the best to play 11 a-side with. Some of the 99% will become average players, their sale covering costs - half a million for Chopra, £2m for Forster, 200k for Alan O'Brien, half a million for Paul Huntington, Whatever Norwich paid for Matty Pattison etc.

 

Carroll was the once in a generation payback that finances investment across the whole club, not just in the academy, that happens very rarely and is the aim of EVERY academy. We could also sell Krul for 8 figures. To have that happen twice in a couple of years would be something the top clubs hope for..

 

When Man U brought 5 academy players through in one year and won the title it was unheard of. It's never happened again either.

[Kid Dynamite 7171]

We haven't failed yet have we? Didn't it come out that it was bollocks that we'd missed out and it wasn't finalised until April or something?

Anyway we've been trying this for years whether it with foreign kids like Zambrella or English ones like Spear. It certainly appears that either our initial scouting or out coaching is flawed because we've not been getting much payback from it. Krul would be the only player I can really think of that we brought into the academy and has come through to be a first team regular. I suppose you could say N'Zogbia but I think he was pretty much straight in and around the first team.

 

What happened to Spear? He was the next big thing

[OTF 7489]

What happened to Spear? He was the next big thing

 

Heard they chucked him. Turned out to be a pointless signing.

[Tooj 17]

He was a piss head and home sick by all accounts.

 

Even though I'm sure he plays in the Icelandic leagues or something.

[David Kelly 1260]

Carroll too, but not brought in from abroad.

 

I think our academy would be viwed as a success. 99% of academy footballers will not make it at the top level. It's accepted everywhere. They are only brought in as Flotsam for the 1% that do have a chance, just bodies for the best to play 11 a-side with. Some of the 99% will become average players, their sale covering costs - half a million for Chopra, £2m for Forster, 200k for Alan O'Brien, half a million for Paul Huntington, Whatever Norwich paid for Matty Pattison etc.

 

Carroll was the once in a generation payback that finances investment across the whole club, not just in the academy, that happens very rarely and is the aim of EVERY academy. We could also sell Krul for 8 figures. To have that happen twice in a couple of years would be something the top clubs hope for..

 

When Man U brought 5 academy players through in one year and won the title it was unheard of. It's never happened again either.

I was basing the only Krul point on him being a player we've brought in from outside the local area which I thought was what the article was talking about in the first place.

Of course we've had much more success over the years (like all clubs have) at bringing through locals. Carroll is clearly the biggest success on purely a monetary basis but Taylor has come through to become an important member of the first team squad (so's Shola sadly). In the past too we've had a couple of good spells, Gazza, Joe Allon, Tinnion, Kevin Scott (although he must have been a bit later thinking about it) came through and played their part and were sold on for a fair bit cash and then we had our own equivalent to the Manure players you mention. For us it was Clark, Watson, Howey, Elliot, Thompson, Alan Neilson, Matty Appleby. Yes they weren't up there with Beckham and Scholes and Giggs but it was still a tremendous success for any academy to have players come through and make such an impact.