Newsletter

Get your daily update and weekly newsletter by signing up today!

News

Alan Pardew ‘We decided 24 months ago to stop buying young players from abroad’

9 years ago
Share

At his pre-Liverpool press conference, Alan Pardew was asked whether young players would now be featuring more, after showing what they could do against Manchester City.

Alan Pardew asserted that young players would be getting their chance and says that many of them now deserve to be in and around his first team.

However, despite the manager’s claims, previous seasons (especially last year) have seen young players hardly get a look in. Last season players such as Shola Ameobi and Dan Gosling were selected in the final months of the season despite having no future at Newcastle United, while the likes of Adam Armstrong and the other young players didn’t get a single Premier League start. This despite there being no pressure of relegation in those final few months.

In fact Massadio Haidara was the only player under the age of 22 to start a league match and that was only a handful of games.

Alan Pardew also refers to he/the club making a decision two years ago to not sign young players from overseas and to concentrate on those from the local area, this will come as news to the likes of Kevin Mbabu, Massadio Haidara, Olivier Kemen, Ayoze Perez, Karl Darlow, Jamaal Lascelles and even Rolando Aarons, a player that Alan Pardew heralds as a great product of Newcastle’s Academy but who actually came through at Bristol City and only arrived at Newcastle two years ago.

(Question to Alan Pardew at pre-Liverpool press conference) ‘The performance of the young players who came in (v Man City) will have surprised some people, do you now feel they are going to feature more?’

The answer’s yes;

“The answer to that is yes, because we think we have a really good crop of young players here.

“Four out of the Academy played; Dummy, Armstrong, Rolando and Sammy Ameobi. Only Sammy we’ve really waited for, the other three have sort of made their progress very rapidly and all of that four – they all have great talent and deserve to be in and around our team.

“We still haven’t seen the best of Armstrong and he could be the pick of the bunch.

Decision twenty four months ago;

“We made a conscious decision about twenty four months ago, to stop buying young players from abroad.

“To focus on the boys that we have here, in this area. Now that is beginning to pay dividends and if they weren’t from this area, to try and ingrain them in the area and to get a love for the City.”

Share

If you would like to feature on The Mag, submit your article to contribute@themag.co.uk

Have your say

© 2024 The Mag. All Rights Reserved. Design & Build by Mediaworks