The Newcastle United Blog

Former Newcastle striker Joe Allon was recently interviewed by the Evening Chronicle and spoke specifically of up and coming 18 year old striker Andy Carroll, one of the Academy’s best youngsters, who has just signed a new four deal with the club.

In the last year or so Newcastle fans have seen Steven Taylor, Peter Ramage, Paul Huntington, David Edgar, Andy Carroll and Matty Pattison all play for the first team and not seem over-awed in the least.

The north-east has always been a hot-bed of soccer and at long last the club is doing the right thing on concentrating on bringing the best local talent to the club.

As Jon indicates in the following interview top clubs like Manchester United and Liverpool have had their ex-youth team players as the foundation of the club – players like Scholes, Giggs, Neville, O’Shea, Carragher, Gerrard and Fowler. With these players 100% effort and commitment to the club is never a problem and fans can really relate to these players.

But here is Jon’s interview – he speaks a whole load of common sense - speaking initially about 6’ 4” Andy Carroll.

He told the Evening Chronicle: “The kid has done fantastic and he’s been rewarded for that with a new deal. I hope he gets a chance, and by that I mean half a dozen games where he can really get something going.

“I never got that as a kid. I only got three games on the trot or so and you need a bit more than that, but you do get that these days as we have seen at other clubs, especially when there are injuries and stuff.

“He’s got to keep plugging away and doing what he has been doing.

“And in Michael Owen, Oba Martins and Shola Ameobi, he has three great strikers to learn from which should aid his progress even more.

“In my day I had Chris Waddle and Peter Beardsley at St James’ Park and for me it was fantastic to be around these players.”

He added: “It’s important to produce the home-grown talent, especially up here because the crowd seems to thrive on it.

“You look at the Man United team that won the Youth Cup - Scholes, Butt, Beckham, Gillespie - you’re talking millions of pounds worth of talent.

“All home-grown talent is a great thing in football and Newcastle have that now.

“A lot of people see doom and gloom at Newcastle, but in terms of bringing players through we’ve had David Edgar, Andy Carroll and Paul Huntington, and that’s just this season.

“The Academy is doing its job and it shows when the club reaches the semis of the Youth Cup.”

Well said Jon Allon and we can look forward to more Steven Taylors coming through the youth squad in the next few years – upward and onward.