The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
The best graduate of Fergie’s early Posh years
No-one could ever accuse Posh manager Darren Ferguson of ignoring his young players.
Even a concerted push for promotion from League One last season didn’t stop Ferguson handing first-team debuts to seven teenagers and there would have been an eighth if Flynn Clarke hadn’t been injured.
Ricky-Jade Jones, Archie Jones, Kyle Barker, Sam Cartwright, Harrison Burrows, Benjamin Mensah and Bobby Copping all played first-team football for the first time last season.
Ricky-Jade Jones, Clarke and Harrison Burrows have been touted as future stars by all who have worked with them at London Road.
Ferguson always claimed Joe Newell was the best player in his time to emerge from the Posh Academy.
Midfielder Newell was just 18 when Ferguson handed him his first-team debut at the back end of the 2010-11 promotion winning season and he went to make more than 100 Posh appearances before playing in the Championship with Rotherham United and thenthe Scottish Premier League with Hibernian.
Others to have reasonable careers after being given their first opportunity under Fergison include midfielder Jermain Anderson who was given his first-team debut aged 16 in a Championship defeat by Blackburn in front of the live TV cameras aged just 16 in 2012 and full-back Kgosi Nthle who made his debut, also in the Championship, aged 18.
Anderson looked set for a bright future until suffering a couple of terrible knee injuries and spent last season at Bradford City.