Newcastle United

Newcastle United: Journalist reveals main change Ashworth will have lined up

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Image for Newcastle United: Journalist reveals main change Ashworth will have lined up

Richie Mills has revealed on the Everything is Black and White podcast the big change Dan Ashworth will have lined up for Newcastle United.

While Newcastle are still yet to get fully going in the transfer market, they may well have made one of the most important and exciting signings of the window as they managed to release Dan Ashworth early from his gardening leave with Brighton, ensuring he will be able to work with the club this summer.

Ashworth arrives as sporting director, a position that has been vacant ever since supremo Lee Charnley departed the club at the back end of last year and while fans will surely be excited by what this means for the Magpies in the transfer market, Ashworth will also have a big focus on improving the club’s academy system.

Mills believes that Ashworth will want to instantly improve Newcastle’s academy and get the best young players in the system.

(7:03) “So I do think that just for Newcastle, what they might try to do is just to make the academy as good as possible, so they might bring in some of the best young players, you know, 16-15-year-olds, or a little bit older and you’re getting the best in class there. Then hopefully, they can bring them up to the first team for future years to come.”

Will Ashworth be a success at Newcastle?

Yes!

Yes!

No!

No!

TIF Thoughts on Newcastle’s academy…

Despite being the biggest and most dominant club in the North East, and have been for the last few years with Sunderland and Middlesbrough struggling in the lower leagues, it’s a shock that the Magpies haven’t been able to snatch all of the best local talents and bleed them into the first team.

While someone such as Elliot Anderson is attracting a lot of excitement and hype given his successful loan spell with Bristol Rovers this season, at just 19 he may not yet be ready for first-team football at this level, which would continue the Magpies’ poor run of getting academy players into the first team with the likes of Sean Longstaff, Paul Dummett and Andy Carroll the best academy products in recent years.

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So, if Ashworth will have a big eye on improving the academy, it could well help get more Geordies into the first team and also, save PIF a lot of money splashing out on big-name players if they can call upon younger stars from the academy.

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