The 52-year-old Richard Money has been charged with completely transforming Newcastle’s Youth set up, and that’s so important now that the club’s long-term vision is to develop young players, brought in from all over the world.
 Richard Money – seems to have a good sense of his new job at Newcastle
Richard also wants to help identify and improve the sourcing and development of young local talent as a key priority in the next 10 years, and will challenge the local community to prove their commitment to the club, by helping the club achieve that goal.
Money talked to nufcTV today:
“There is a lot of work to do and there is some real catching up that we have to do too,â€
“The reality is the owner and the people that work with him have realized there needs to be more investment and therefore a higher profile attached to the youth set-up.“
“That is not going to happen overnight but we need to start looking at things immediately.â€
Money has already been training with the 17 year-olds and older for a few weeks, and is due to see the 9 to 16 year-olds early next month, but he already believes there is a lot of improvement that can be made, and is also keen to recruit good local talent.
Money continued:
“Getting Newcastle people in the Newcastle team has to be our number one goal.”
“My job is to ensure we get the best young players we can get, and we will continue to recruit from around Europe and around the country.”
“But the ideal situation must be that they’re English and ideally from the local area. I think that is probably the case for every Premier League team, to be honest.”
“I think one of the things we have to do as quickly as we can is to get everyone on the same page and singing from the same hymn sheet.”
“That means looking at our organization and how things are done from the bottom up.”
“But people tell me everyone around here has black and white blood flowing through their veins. Well, we have to test that and make sure it’s true.”
“Surely everyone in the area should be working in the same direction to ensure that the best coaches and players work within our organizationâ€
Good words from Richard there, and the Newcastle Academy has improved a lot over the last 2-3 years, since Glenn Roeder initially came in during June, 2005, to be the Academy manager, before becoming first team manager some 7 months later.
But in the last 3 seasons the youth team has reached the semi-finals of the FA Youth Cup twice, and we’ve already signed 5 top youngsters in January, and expect to bring in even more young talent during this summer.
Owner Mike Ashley wants to set up the Newcastle system, like Arsene Wenger has done at Arsenal, and it’s not a bad model to follow.
Mike’s already released funds to bring the likes of Aaron Spear, Fabio Zamblera and Swindon’s Ben Tozer into the Academy, and Money says he will continue to have cash to invest in young players.
Money continued:
“Really, we are interested in the long-term,â€Â “When we get the boys back in August I will look at the structure of the club from top to bottom, and look for us to be bringing in the people that we need to be bringing in.”
“Together with schools and local boys clubs, we need to forge long-standing relationships that can develop the best young players right from a very young age group.â€
Money arrived at St James’ Park after being manager of League One Walsall, and the former Liverpool and Fulham defender wanted to return to youth development, mainly because of the commitment he saw from Newcastle owner Mike Ashley.
Richard also has a good track record in youth football, since he has already worked at Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest’s youth sides, and also oversaw Coventry City’s Youth Academy.
But most of all Richard seems delighted to have landed the plum Newcastle job:
“I’m delighted to be at Newcastle. It’s a job with massive potential, but there’s a lot of work to do and it’s been a whirlwind first three or four weeks,â€
“People need to understand what my role is. I have come in to oversee everything – to raise the profile of everything that we do, from under nine to the 20-21 year-olds.”
“That encompasses recruitment, it will be structure of the Academy, coaching and pretty much everything.â€Â “Kevin Keegan and I will work very closely,†“We have already held discussions and we will continue to do that.”
“We want to embark on a process as quickly as possible to ensure that we produce as many first-team players as possible.” “I’m not sure how quickly that will happen. It’s a very long-term process, but there are some things that we can do to speed that up.â€
Now that we can have 7 substitutes next season, that will help to give the younger lads get some visibility to the first team.
But we like what we hear from Richard, and make no mistake, it’s a key job for this club in the coming seasons.
Comments welcome.
19 comments so far
toonwills09
Jul 24, 2008 at 9:36 AM
Comment #1first.
keeganjr
Jul 24, 2008 at 9:45 AM
Comment #2i like to polecy.. bring up the youngsters
GEORDIE69
Jul 24, 2008 at 9:49 AM
Comment #3Everyone needs to support our youth teams instead of slagging them off for not beating the likes of Newcastle Benfield and Gateshead. Confidence goes along way to being successful. These boys are our club’s future. Come on the toon.
iceman
Jul 24, 2008 at 9:50 AM
Comment #4this is all good for the future, but ashley has to start making money avalabile to kk for the first team theres no point in having a great academy with a shite first team.
sean667
Jul 24, 2008 at 9:50 AM
Comment #5sounds like a plan
HalftimeBovril
Jul 24, 2008 at 9:52 AM
Comment #6Ed
You mention Aaron Spear in the list of the promising youngsters Ashley has bought.
Has he actually signed yet as there as been no official confirmation from the club
PapaToon
Jul 24, 2008 at 9:56 AM
Comment #7definately the way to go. Should see the results within 3-4 seasons of good players. Some ppl doubt Mike Ashley as according to the press which we seem to believe in so much that he is not providing the funds to buy quality players. i for one think he is making a big difference as he has given the club a foundation which we have previously never had. He and Chris Mort stated from day one that building Newcastle into a great team is a medium to long term goal, and they have proven this with their young recruitments.
I beleive we will have the 4 players needed have a decent squad number before the season starts. Cant pay attention to what the press say they dont have a clue, Jonas Guiterez is a good example.
Cyprus-Toon
Jul 24, 2008 at 9:59 AM
Comment #8Pre-season friendlies are just so the manamgers can see what needs adjusting for the coming season, so it’s no biggy if they win, lose or draw, its just friendly!! lol
I do hope we start getting some local lads in the academy tho, that will help build a sound foundation for the future instead of expecting other nationalities to fill that void, we need a few more Shearers… lol
iceman
Jul 24, 2008 at 10:02 AM
Comment #9its being reported that tal ben haim has snubbed the toon for man city,hope its not true he would be a good partner for taylor
Taiwantoon
Jul 24, 2008 at 10:03 AM
Comment #10The Athletic Bilbao model? 🙂 I like it, but hard to be done.
mr_flibbles
Jul 24, 2008 at 10:22 AM
Comment #11No Tal Ben Haim is not the player we need. he makes mistakes just like Taylor but you think because he is coming from chelsea that he is really good? I think Faye is more competant defender than Ben Haim. If your wanting a proper good defender for Newcastle look at Collocini.
Do not rate chelsea rejects or for that matter any rejects, there is a reason they didn’t play- because they make too many mistakes if there a defender or they don’t score enough goals if there a striker.
If you want to look at a proper reject look no further than Alan Smith.
Alan Smith take a bow.
Gooderz
Jul 24, 2008 at 10:33 AM
Comment #12It’s so refreshing to hear there’s going to be a definite focus on local lads because it was beginning to get quite irritating seeing many go to Boro, who I’d be happy to see in the black and white.
Punk Skunk
Jul 24, 2008 at 10:35 AM
Comment #13What do the rags actually know about our transfer dealin’s?..Where were they when Jonas & Guthrie signed?..
…ben haim prob went to shciteh to sit on the bench & not have to play & be paid ott wages at the same time…I’m soooo glad!..
…That was a lucky escape, as was ‘losing’ all those planks to s*land…Lol!..
aqmin
Jul 24, 2008 at 10:42 AM
Comment #14ED!!!!!!!!!
Mike’s already released funds to bring the likes of Aaron Spear, Fabio Zamblera and Swindon’s Ben Tozer into the Academy, and Money says he will continue to have cash to invest in young players.
IS THIS TRUE??? HAVE WE SIGNED AARON SPEAR?? PLEASE……………..ANYONE, VERIFY THIS!!!!!!!!!
Marty
Jul 24, 2008 at 11:07 AM
Comment #15We`ll have the players within 3weeks,do`nt worry.
The team are working behind the scenes n we wont sniff it before it happens,good idea i reckon!
Difficult not knowing but then wew dont have to pay double the odds because it wont be in the papers n otrher clubs wont know about our dealings
Leo
Jul 24, 2008 at 11:20 AM
Comment #16one example of someone he is wrong about= being on the same page and having black and white blood.
one michael carrick, some of the things he says to the press, i would say he has infected blood the traitor
chuck
Jul 24, 2008 at 11:32 AM
Comment #17On the same page and singing from the same hymn book , what is this guy a walking cliche?
Local talent, bla bla, bla, with a name like that
should be aware of the old adage “money talks & bull**** walks”.
What this club needs is an infusion of dosh, readies , capital, moolah, to buy the required
talent badly needed NOW, not ten years down the road.
PapaToon
Jul 24, 2008 at 2:46 PM
Comment #18been there, done that! didnt work chuck. couple of summers ago we spent 50 mil
51times
Jul 24, 2008 at 3:48 PM
Comment #19chuck – I agree, I mean that’s how we got Newcastle legends like Albert Luque and Patrick Kluivert.