Magpies finish hatches elite event for academy
NEWCASTLE United star Anthony Gordon has been selected for England’s 24-man training camp ahead of the Under-21 European Championships next month.
The £40m winger has struggled to hold down a first-team place since joining Eddie Howe’s side in January but will be hoping for some muchneeded minutes when the Young Lions travel to Georgia and Romania in the coming weeks.
Lee Carsley’s England will face Israel, Czechia and holders Germany in their group as they bid to win the tournament for the first time since 1984. Gordon will be joined in the training camp by the likes of Nottingham Forest’s Morgan Gibbswhite, Arsenal’s Emile Smith-rowe and Chelsea’s Noni Madueke.
Carsley will name his final tournament squad on June 14 with Gordon expected to play a part should he avoid injury.
His call up comes as Kieran Trippier and Callum Wilson were selected for Gareth Southgate’s latest senior squad.
Gordon arrived on Tyneside to significant fanfare back in January but his Newcastle career is yet to fully take off. A £40m price tag will have no doubt added pressure, while his tumultuous Everton exit may still be lingering over him as he attempts to force his way into the starting XI at Newcastle.
Howe continues to champion Gordon at every turn and will no doubt be happy to see the January recruit gaining more experience at
NEWCASTLE United’s senior stars can now dream of Champions League nights under the lights at St James’ Park after sealing a top-four finish.
Eddie Howe’s side can no longer be overhauled by Liverpool despite a late rally from Jurgen Klopp’s side, with a final-day visit to Chelsea only set to determine whether the Magpies finish third or fourth.
However, it is not only United’s first-team stars who should look forward to a return to facing Europe’s elite.
Newcastle’s entry into the Champions League also means the club will enter an academy side into the UEFA Youth League next season, a 64-team tournament featuring every international level. “Anthony is very much integrated into the squad,” Howe told reporters last month.
“He’s got the squad feel. When you come into a new group like he has, which is especially difficult in club to qualify for the continent’s leading competition.
It will mark the young Magpies’ first appearance in the competition following a revamp in 2013, with Barcelona and Chelsea the only two-time winners so far.
AZ Alkmaar are the reigning champions after a five-goal thrashing of Hadjuk Split in the final last month.
Newcastle’s youth side will participate in a group stage which mirrors the Champions League, with
January, you have got to understand the squad, the feeling, the aim. Every club is different so Anthony has had to join that feeling.
“He’s very much integrating really well into the squad. When I look at group winners progressing to the knockout phase and the runnersup entering a play-off phase.
The remaining 32 teams will be the domestic youth champions from the highest-ranked entering associations whose senior team did not qualify for the Champions League group stage.
This domestic champions path pits teams into two rounds of two-legged knockout ties, and the eventual eight winners will then face the secondplaced sides from the Champions League path.
Knockout fixtures from him at lunchtimes and when the players are socialising and eating together, he’s always in the hub of it. He’s not excluded. He’s very much in the core of the group. That’s a great thing for me to see.” this point will be one-off ties, with the runners-up playing away from home, and the semi-finals and final both played at the same venue.
The draw for the Champions League path of next season’s UEFA Youth League is due to be held on August 31, with the group stage running from September through to December.
If Newcastle should progress to the knockout or the playoff phase, ties will be held from February next year onwards, with the final set for April 22.
The UEFA Youth League will mark a new challenge for Ben Dawson’s under-21 side following a difficult season.
The young Magpies ended the campaign with two wins, at eighth in the Premier League 2 Division 2 table, missing out on the play-offs.