One of the things Newcastle have not been too good at since owner Mike Ashley began the emphasis on the Youth Academy back in early 2008, when the club would try to recruit from all over Europe and bring the youngsters through on Tyneside, has not been too successful – not yet.
Curtis Good – very promising 21 year-old Australian International
But at the moment we have some very promising youngsters coming through the ranks, and three of them are center-backs.
Curtis Good – shown above – turned 21 last Sunday, and is a very promising defender we signed form Melbourne Heart almost two years ago for £400K, and he went on loan last season to Bradford City, and managed to play in the League Cup Final at Wembley against Swansea, and this season he has been on loan at Dundee United, although that loan spell has been put in abeyance as he recovers from injury.
That injury was picked up at the New Den in London, when he made his debut for Australia against Ecuador, and the Australian manager Ange Postecoglou aftre the game called his debut fantastic:
“I thought Curtis was excellent,” “He’s one of the ones we wanted to expose at the highest level. and he was fantastic.”
“For the most part he was what I expected, he was composed, he made good clear decisions. He’s going to better for it.”
Curtis now has every chance of being in Australia’s World Cup squad for Brazil in June, and he has a chance maybe to come through into the Newcastle first team next season.
This lad could well be a winner, as he plays no-nonsense defense and has a great left foot – and he can also play at left back – Good made his Newcastle debut against Morecambe last year in the Capital One Cup.
19 year-old Remie Streete
Remie Street is a lad from South Shields and is a previous winner of the Wor Jackie award for the best U18 player at the club.
His father Floyd played for Wolverhampton Wanderers in his prime – and also for Jamaica, and the they are said to be interested in the youngster for International duty.
Remie stands 6’2″ tall and has pace, and is also strong and aggressive in the tackle, and the former Boldon school pupil has been praised recently be manager Alan Pardew, as a youngster who has looked impressive lately in training.
“I have got Remie Streete, who is doing particularly well in the development group , and is he going to get a game? Does he need to go out on loan?
Maybe Remie can be sent out on loan next season to get much needed first team games in the lower divisions – but we hope this lad from south of the River Tyne can eventually make the grade on Tyneside.
18 year-old Lubo Satka
We keep reading good things about this Slovakian young defender, who has already represented his country at U19 level, and he has played regularly for the Newcastle U21 side.
Lubo was one of three top youngsters to sign their first professional contracts earlier this week, and his parents came over for the signing, and the other two youngsters were local lad Adam Armstrong and young goalkeeper Freddie Woodman, the son of goalkeeping coach Andy.
The Slovakian had this to say after signing for Newcastle:
“I’m really happy. I’ve enjoyed my two years at the club and it’s good that I can keep going and stay here. My parents came over from Slovakia to see me sign my contract which made me very happy. I don’t get to see them too much so I hope that they’re proud.”
We expect Lubo to get more U21 games for the foreseeable future ,as he continues to come through the ranks.
These three young center-backs at Newcastle all show great promise, and it will be interesting to see who can make it through to the Newcastle first team in the years ahead.
Comments welcome.
Note: Andrew Todd is a passionate Geordie first, and a final year student at De Montfort University second, and he’s busy working on his dissertation. His questionnaire is only for people in the UK Retail Sector, and takes only a few minutes to complete here it is.
11 comments so far
Nufc-83
Mar 26, 2014 at 1:13 PM
Comment #1Nufc-83 // Mar 26, 2014 at 1:02 PM
Toonbrother its clear to me that Colocinni has done something to you personally as the hate you have is disturbing. Anyone who knows anything at all about football would say he is a good defender playing in a very poor side. Willo by his standards has had an outsanding season and really done enough to be kept at the club. Dummett and MYM look shocking to say the least even if MYM is playing out of position i just dont see what he offers as a premiership CB. Toonborther you keep very quiet when collo has a great game or when we win yet when we lose you come on here and blame almost every goal conceded on him even if it has nothing to do with him its laughable at best you idiot.
65Nufc-83 // Mar 26, 2014 at 1:04 PM
One thing i still cant believe and i would love to know how we compare to other teams (but cant be bothered looking) is our set peices. I have never seen a team so poor for such a long time i really cant see how this is not being rectified. Do we really have nobody in the team (Debuchy is the onlyone i am aware of) who can cross a ball with a bit of whip and pace?? All of the set pieces are floated in and so easy to defend its a joke.
wolfshead@toon
Mar 26, 2014 at 1:18 PM
Comment #2@1
its a bit unfair singling toonbrother out as an idiot when there is so many to choose from
guvnor
Mar 26, 2014 at 1:26 PM
Comment #3If they are out like Dummet keep them in the reserves and buy some Premier league players.
wolfshead@toon
Mar 26, 2014 at 1:28 PM
Comment #4p.s on debuchy i doubt we will see him or remy play many more games for nufc the gig is up for bumble and his hoodwinking of french players bought cheaply into coming here with false promises in a perverse way Louis Nicollin probably cares more about us than ashley does
im not sure where we go from here
toonbrother
Mar 26, 2014 at 1:30 PM
Comment #5One thing for sure each of these players is a million miles better than Colocinni. Cant wait to see SideShow bob take his mediocre backside back to Argentina
guvnor
Mar 26, 2014 at 1:32 PM
Comment #6Newcastle United is full of cheap foreigners who don’t have any fight in their bellies.
toonbrother
Mar 26, 2014 at 1:33 PM
Comment #7Whenever colocinni plays we are liable to defensive collapse. There is an infinite amount of evidence to support this. The only manager dumb enough to ignore this is Pardumb
guvnor
Mar 26, 2014 at 1:37 PM
Comment #8Coloccini is well past it he was completely took to the cleaners last night the sooner he’s gone the better.
AndyNUFC
Mar 26, 2014 at 1:44 PM
Comment #9I despair for these mackems who troll on here.
kimbo
Mar 26, 2014 at 1:49 PM
Comment #10Sorry to say that I watched Streete and Satka at Whitley Bay last week and they were useless and will not make it even in league 2. Their standard was probably playing Northern League Football at best so let`s get something straight here and that is, our youth policy is useless and not fit for purpose.
One more statement …if we persist with Anita we will always be crap and will get relegated next season.
MelbToon
Mar 26, 2014 at 11:00 PM
Comment #11Anita is good on the ball and shows good technique, however I don’t think he is suited in midfield. To get on top of other teams in the premier league, you need to be able to boss the midfield – Anita isn’t capable of doing this. I would like to see Anita get a run at LB, he played the position at Ajax and would link up well with Santon who should get a chance at LM.
What we lack after Cabaye left is a natural playmaker. Tiote, Anita or Sissoko aren’t playmakers – it is obvious why we aren’t scoring goals. I think if we can sign a decent playmaker and a strong defender, along with a RM and couple of strikers, we would have a decent team – I doubt we will though.
I would play Santon at LM, Tiote and Sissoko in the middle, and sign a RM to compete with Ben Arfa for that position. A creative midfielder in the number 10 role who is capable of tracking back aswell and a prolific striker.
Defence – Anita on left, new CB, Willo and Debuchy.