Not a thread about ****** or ******, thank f***. Although ****** must wonder what ****** has done to these young players so they seek employment elsewhere. It looks like another batch of young players not to make are about to be shown the door. No surprises really, We can only hope that the latest group, Armstrong, Kemen etc, turn out better. http://www.themag.co.uk/the-mag-articles/mike-ashley-ditch-b-team/ The word out of St.James’ Park was that Newcastle United had a B team of rising young players, a shadow team who would benefit from going out on loan and come back all the stronger. A set of players who could potentially give Newcastle cover in every position and save a fortune in transfer fees. Sadly this now looks a ‘slightly’ optimistic outlook, with the Journal reporting yesterday that both Haris Vuckic and James Tavernier have had their names circulated to lower division teams, with Gael Bigirimana also said to have been made available for a summer move. This surely though is only the tip of the iceberg as United have pretty much a full team of now not so young youngsters who have no future at St.James’ Park. While the likes of 18 year old Luke Shaw, and 20 year olds Ross Barclay and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, head off to Brazil, it takes a massive leap of faith that the following can suddenly become Premier League players. By the end of the summer transfer window, all of these players will be 22 or older; All 22 – Vuckic, Tavernier, Newton, Richardson, Sammy Ameobi , 23 year old Shane Ferguson, 25 year old Romain Amalfitano. With 20 year old Bigirimana also looking unwanted, I think you unfortunately have to question as well just what chance Adam Campbell has of making it, only 19 but after struggling to get a game on loan for St.Mirren he must be really up against it. One player that is on an upward curve would appear to be Curtis Good, who’s performed well for Dundee United and received his first call up for Australia this season, injuries have hampered him but he appears to have a great chance of making the World Cup as well. Another who maybe has a chance is Algerian midfielder Medhi Abeid, a successful loan spell at Panathinaikos has seen him score nine goals and lift the Cup. Abeid will turn 22 in August and while the Greek league isn’t the strongest, he couldn’t have done much more to show he’s worth another look. If nothing else, Newcastle will need to make space for the next generation of young players such as Adam Armstrong and others, the last thing we need is to have players who could potentially make it and them having their progression blocked by players who have no future at Newcastle United.
The worst thing is - Some of those potentially being shown the door may have developed under a better manager than Pardew. Bigirimana especially looked good last season and I thought he would have a bright future. Supposedly MA is having a meeting with AP to discuss why the youngsters haven't come through as expected.....
Hopefully MA will realise after the meeting that Pardew hasn't got it in him to bring the best out of anybody.
Simple fact is that a lot of PL and CL clubs will have players on their books that will not develop far enough to meet the demands of playing at this level and will be let go or transfered to lower leagues, at an age of 22 if they have not broke through to the 1st team squad then it is highly unlikely that a player will.
All the names above, except one (Bigi), are obviously not good enough to play in the premier league. I doubt most of them would even be good enough for league 1, and it's embarrassing we've persisted this long with them. Tavernier was a disaster against Hartlepool for crying out loud.
I don't think Tavernier will make he jump either. I think our policy should be buying high end young championship players though. In mass quantities. Some will come good. On a side note, Abeid scored again today. That brings him to 10 goals and 10 assists in the league. Why not give him a shot next year? He's better than Cabaye's replacement....
Not really suprising to be honest. I never really saw much in any of them bar Ferguson, Bigi and Vuckic. Vuckic was far too lazy though which is not a good trait in a young player trying to make his way in the game. Ferguson looks to have regressed and can't even make Birmingham's match day squad. Bigi showed some decent signs, but in terms of game knowledge, positioning etc he was pretty poor. Its a slightly disappointing we haven't been able to impart more knowledge onto him. I hear Pardew mentioned again of course but the reality is these lads have been ot of the first team picture and working with the coaches at the junior levels. It probably says more about the make up of the standard of backroom staff than it does about Pardew. Also some of it is probably down to players just not being good enough.
He's quite a talent and deserves his chance. Better to play him and bring the best out of him than risk him losing his confidence by not playing him.
I think some club structures are set up to help, I don't think ours is. Raw talent and desire will get the 15/16 year olds noticed and on the books, but we're so threadbare in terms of coaching that it seems very difficult to support these players when they get a chance. Look at our awful performances in the u-21 league this year; Willie Donachie, sacked, not replaced. Beardsley is then given the entire youth/reserves set up, how is that possible for a Premier League club? The likes of Wigan, Brighton and Derby have deeper, more professional set-ups than we do. It's a familiar theme, though - Joe Kinnear "replaced" Llambias, who was himself a poor-mans Mort. Next replacement? Errr, Charnley. Is Charnley replaced with a similar level of expertise? Nope, his 20-odd year old assistant steps up. Is Charnley an experience MD of a footbal club, a director of football? Nope, he's a bean counter. It's a very, very threadbare ship we're running because Ashley only employs people he implicitly trusts. It's almost as if he has no idea how to run a football club.
Another Europa league campaign might have done them some good but then everyone is totally against that competition. Another reason from me that it isnt so pointless as we are being told. Last season gave the youngsters some great experience and given a bit more luck in the end we could have won the competition. How utterly pointless when we could be paddling along excitingly clinching tenth place in the prem.
That's unfair. Ashley probably knows how to run an ambitious football club going places. He just chooses not to because he doesn't need to. He has a profitable business which is acting as the perfect vehicle to improve the prospects of his main area of business. I do agree with the rest though, this streamlining is not doing any good for the long term prospects of the football club itself.
Ok, try this one - Ashley THOUGHT he knew better than the rest of the league. He THOUGHT you could make a club profitable, buy low/sell high and continually improve year on year with minimal investment and staffing. What he has since learned is that you in fact can't. To get through any glass ceiling you need to buy expensive tools for the job. He doesn't want to speculate to accumulate, thus we are marooned in mid-table.
I say keep Bigi and give him a fair crack. Looked a decent player in the making and better than some in our current 1st team squad.
