Howe has his eyes on De Bolle as he plots young talent’s path to senior team
THE AGENDA: Head coach looking at big picture as Magpies aim to address Academy challenge
EDDIE Howe was tasked with one big aim when he was appointed as Newcastle United manager last November with the club’s owners asking him to pull off something close to Mission Impossible on Tyneside.
It was an assignment Howe knew he could not – in his own words – “guarantee” but as another summer on Tyneside starts in earnest, and fans look forward to next season, he has delivered survival and more in his short tenure at United so far.
The bigger picture presents different challenges for the l club.
Never mind what some of the answers are, until technical director Dan Ashworth gets behind his desk we may not even know some of the questions.
Yet one thing is for sure and that is Newcastle will need to improve their recent record of giving young players a chance if they are to build for the long-term future.
No football club can survive on just big-money signings alone. One alarming statistic is that Newcastle have been unable to hand any minutes to players under the age of 21 this season.
The club’s under-18 side has also endured a tough campaign and lost 13-0 to Manchester City at the weekend in the Academy League. The under-23 side have had a slightly better season, finishing eighth in Premier League Two under Elliott Dickman’s watch. Historically, United’s youth system has been dealt some quite remarkable blows.
You can go back to the 1990s when Kevin Keegan scrapped the reserve team with one of the notable losses from that generation being future England and Manchester United star Michael Carrick.
Carrick was at the club as a teenager but it was decided with no clear pathway to the first team that West Ham was a better bet. United tried to repair the damage in the early 2000s with Little Benton being built in 2003 and the club’s Academy showing an improvement in terms of production.
Success stories from that particular building include £35m Andy Carroll, Steven Taylor, Paul Dummett and Adam Armstrong.
More recently we’ve had Elliot Anderson but Howe is eager for more to come through – and soon.
Another club move in 2016 saw the under-23s move back from the first-team training base to Little Benton.
Whether that made any difference in terms of players coming through is up for debate but it was deemed as a disconnection by some observers.
We’re a long way from the 1985 FA Youth Cup-winning team which included Paul Gascoigne but, regardless of history, there is still a massive footballing hotbed to choose from on Tyneside.
From Whickham to Whitley Bay, some grassroots clubs are training
Historically, United’s youth system has been dealt some quite remarkable blows
youngsters as young as three these days. After keeping United up Howe, who has still attended Academy training sessions despite being ultra busy, will turn his attention to the club’s youth system.
Howe likes the look of 19-year-old Lucas De Bolle, while there are also high hopes for Dylan Stephenson and exciting playmaker Jay TurnerCooke.
Reflecting on the under-18s’ tough campaign, Howe told The Journal: “I don’t think results are the be all and end all. So even if teams have struggled or not had the best season as a team, for me it’s not about that.
“It is about the individuals coming through to the first team here.
“Definitely if there is a disconnect, I want to bring the Academy, the under-23s, everything, closer to us.
“We try to do that already to an extent by having training once a week with the under-23s who come in with the first team. We try to integrate things that way.”
Howe said earlier in the season if the game needed a player like De Bolle, a technically-gifted midfielder
with a fine range of passing, he would not hesitate to name him in his starting line-up.
Anderson’s next phase of development will also be interesting.
Howe added: “I think it is important we embrace everything to do with the club.
“Nothing would please me more than to bring two or three players through per year who can really compete and get into the first team.
“That might be some way off but I’d love to do that.”
For now, Newcastle fans must wait to see what happens when Ashworth eventually arrives through the door.
There have been names such as Brighton’s former Academy boss John Morling and Chelsea’s Neil Bath both linked in the pages of national newspapers.
Bath produced more than £500m worth of talent at Stamford Bridge, including Mason Mount and
Reece James, but any club would be fortunate to land his services.
As things stand, Academy director
Steve Harper is still barely a year into the job at Little Benton. Harper works hand in hand with Ben Dawson and the best choices to train with the first team are picked.
Howe introduced a regular under23 day at the first-team base too.
He said: “Ben has done a great job in terms of bringing us information on everything to do with the Academy – and that relationship is hugely important.”
After years of first-team bosses forced to focus on nothing but keeping Newcastle in the top flight, it is refreshing to see both the club owners and a forward-thinking head coach like Howe taking a look at the bigger picture.