Well it’s Been A Long Time Hasn’t It…

   Well since I last wrote an article Newcastle still had a load of over paid tosh, it was the holiday’s and I was half a stone lighter, a lot has changed. I as everybody has been, have been surprised by my club’s start to life in the Championship, I never expected to be top of the table as of lack of transfer activity and having the players that didn’t try last season (Since we let go of Bassong, Beye, Martins etc, won’t miss Owen, Cacapa, Viduka…arse wipes) ie; Smith, Geremi, Butt, but this has seen the emergence of Newcastle’s youth players.

  Nile Ranger, Tamas Kadar, Haris Vuckic, Kazenga LuaLua, Ryan Donaldson, Ben Tozer, James Tavernier, Tim Krul just to name a few, these players seem to be Newcastle’s future and I guess I’ve been happy with their progress (especially Ranger, basically 1st team regular) and surprised that they’ve been able to do a job when needed (except maybe P’boro, but that saw the emergence of Tavernier). This youth team may not all be future Premiership stars, but its nice to know that if injuries become hard to deal with, we’ll have a more than decent back up for wherever is affected. Not all of the players will make it to a regular 1st team Premiership player in the future, only Ranger, Vuckic, Kadar, Tavernier and maybe Donaldson and LuaLua, but hell its more than Newcastle have ever had made it to that level. I can count Steven Taylor, Aaron Hughes, Andy Carroll and maybe Peter Ramage that have made it into the 1st team on a regular basis in the past 10 years apart from that nothing which is disappointing. Manchester United brought through Ryan Giggs, David Beckham, Nicky Butt, Paul Scholes, Gary Neville, Phil Neville in a period of 3 years, they are players that have won Champions League, Premierships, FA Cups and all have represented their countries at International level, why can’t we do that? Well we can, but our scouts will need to work that extra hard to find the players and our youth coaches need to start doing the best to their abilities coaching these kids and correcting the wrongs in them. The young players of this generation are just as good as the players of the old generation, it’s just they aren’t found and that the academies bring players in at such a young age it ruins them. Players need to be picked up from 13-14 not 6 and 7 that way they learn the game from grass roots not by a strict over done controlled games, that way kids pick up that bit of bottle and skill thats needed for the top level. I hope clubs see the sense in what they are doing and correct their ways, but that is or was very unlikely to happen, as the FA has brought in a home grown rule, but clubs can just bring through foreign players which can be a way around of bringing through local youth, but pressure is on clubs these days to bring through talent from this country and I sure hope it happens soon.