We think the two most promising youngsters at Newcastle right now are 18 year-old local lad Adam Campbell, and 19 year-old Gael Bigirimana, who was brought in from Coventry City last summer for £1M, and he played 25 times for Newcastle last season.
Adam Campbell – could come through big time next season
Mike Ashley started the latest youth drive back in January of 2008, just six months after buying the club, but after over five years now, Newcastle have precious little to show for it, with not one youngster having broken through to become a first team regular.
Shane Ferguson has played 32 times for the first team over the last two and a half years, and Sammy Ameobi has made 28 appearances so far, and they’ve probably been the most successful youngsters over the last two years.
But last year Gael Bigirimana already looked a very capable defensive midfielder when he played in the first team, and he’s currently with the England U20 side preparing for the FIFA U20 World Cup in Turkey, that starts later this month.
Adam Campbell has played for a lot of the England sides including the U19 side that recently failed to qualify for the European U19 Championships, and Adam also narrowly missed out on the 21 man England U20 squad, after being named with Gale in the provisional squad.
We expect these two lads to be given their chance next season, and they are unlikely to be sent out on loan, as they challenge for first team football at Newcastle.
And for the Newcastle Youth Academy we need to see some of our youngsters break through to the Newcastle first team, and hopefully that will be true next year at this time.
What do you think?
Follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook and +1 us on Google+:
You can also reach Ed at admin@nufcblog.com
=============================================
94 comments so far
Transfer Sage
Jun 7, 2013 at 9:01 AM
Comment #81sack llambias
sorry…meant to write that comment to sparky
Rotonda heights
Jun 7, 2013 at 9:01 AM
Comment #82Yes tragically we are stuck with Pardew no matter what it seems. How sad is it that one man alone can dictate such misery to 52000+ millions worldwide. Oh for the German fans club ownership programmes.
TorqToon
Jun 7, 2013 at 9:04 AM
Comment #83Think we need to wrap up 1 or 2 signings so we all have something else other than pards and Ashley millions to chat about!
Can’t believe how long slanks list of our ‘players leaving’ is!!???! Brilliant! Easy job being a journo!
Transfer Sage
Jun 7, 2013 at 9:08 AM
Comment #84rotonda
as much as i am bored of pardew, there was misery before and there will be misery after…the joys of newcastle ey.
torq
we need a few good players in ASAP, get them settled in the area and squad…the longer the have in pre season the better.
All quiet from what i hear, but knowing how reliable my info is that probably means we are busy haha
Jail for Ashley
Jun 7, 2013 at 9:11 AM
Comment #85Sack Llambias,
Beautiful figures, it must be like walking around the Louvre staring at those for some, still doesn’t take away the fact we have broken every unwanted club PL stat since he’s been here.
TorqToon
Jun 7, 2013 at 9:15 AM
Comment #86Morning sage! You don’t do bad mate! And I agree, get them in and settled. And blast them in pre season with hard training and some tough pre season friendlies.
With everything so quiet, the blog becomes stagnant and repetitive, so we need some excitement!!
Had the pleasure of speaking to a bloke who knows the identity of that Indykalia bloke off
Twitter. And after hearing what I heard, I cant believe he has as many followers and the reliable reputation he has!!!
Laurent Robert 32
Jun 7, 2013 at 9:18 AM
Comment #87The most refreshing thing in a while for me was listening to Kevin Keegan talk about his time with Newcastle in that Sky Sports interview with Harmison. The passion and honesty he speaks about is another world to what is there now.
His genuine enthusiasm on the area and the club was great as well as how the game should be played.
I’ve read his book before, and he touched on a few things I’d already read.
sparky55
Jun 7, 2013 at 9:24 AM
Comment #88sack lambias…what happens if we sell the lower paid ones and the purples decide they want to leave??
Our squad has got the numbers we didn’t have at the start of last year but as per slanks list there’s an awful lot of mediocrity there.
We will need all that squad depth we have right now and all that mediocrity to cover the deserting purples.
It won’t be much different to last year…our purples were injured most of the year and we just stayed up…this year we won’t have that many purples left and it’ll be left to maybe three ‘better than average’ signings and the same squad players to get us up to the projected dizzy heights of 10th.
My bet is Colo and Cabaye and tiote and Ben Arfa to leave (possibly cisse too), with Carroll and 3 other decent players to come in with Ashley 10 million better off.
coming in…
a good winger to replace BenArfa
a good CB to replace Colo
Anita will replace Cabaye
Sissoko will replace tiote
an attacking midfielder to come in
Tommyy
Jun 7, 2013 at 9:31 AM
Comment #89Torq – what was said about him?
Jail for Ashley
Jun 7, 2013 at 9:35 AM
Comment #90Sparky,
I know it is with irony when we speak about our ‘purples’ but I believe that absurd statement from Dastardly was just one of the many factors that contributed to our collapse last year, why Dirk Llambias wasn’t banned from publicly speaking after that I don’t know !
TorqToon
Jun 7, 2013 at 9:35 AM
Comment #91Tommy – I cant remember what the saying is, but its something like “it you throw enough sh1t…eventually, some of it will stick!”
He is no better than Cwarr07 when you look at his ‘past predictions’!
Tommyy
Jun 7, 2013 at 9:38 AM
Comment #92I think the reason we haven’t gone for Carroll is his abysmal injury record. If he comes back he’ll be out for the majority of the season, every season!
We need at least a winger of top quality and to ship Obertan out. I cannot believe they allowed Pardew to bring him in, it was obvious at Man U he’d never be good enough!
I’m still waiting for one or two more nationally or internationally respected coaches, we’re well a overdue a proper backroom staff of genuine quality.
Tommyy
Jun 7, 2013 at 9:39 AM
Comment #93Torq – I always felt he was a smarter version of Cwarr07, in that he actually attempted to cover his tracks when giving his info. In fairness to some of the ITK’s, things in football change so rapidly that their info can be outdated within a few hours.
TorqToon
Jun 7, 2013 at 9:42 AM
Comment #94Tommy – most of his ‘exclusives’ have been proven to been taken from our news sources in the hours previous.
He may be smarter than Cwarr07, but nor by much.