Some Newcastle United fans have been reacting on social media after Head of Academy Coaching Ben Dawson defended the Toon’s youth set-up.
Dawson feels he and other key club staff are often given a bad rap for their decisions behind the scenes, but would argue that those at Newcastle should not be held in comparison to those at Sunderland, Middlesbrough or elsewhere in the North East as United are the only one in the Premier League.
Dawson is adamant that neither he nor the club are without ambition, either, and is firm in his desires to see players develop in house from a young age before going on to lift silverware at club level and captain England on the international stage.
“We get a bad press here at times, saying ‘We’re not doing this or that’ and other North East clubs are better than us,” Dawson told The Athletic. “Well, we have a harder job because we have to produce players for the Premier League. We’re not producing players for the Championship or League One; that’s not our goal. It’s entirely different.
“We don’t just want players for the first team; we want to produce someone who’s going to go on, lift the Champions League and captain England. That’s our long-term vision.”
Will a Toon product captain England in the next 10 years?
Yes
No
Of those currently offering their services to Steve Bruce in the senior fold, only Paul Dummett, Jamie Sterry, Andy Carroll and Matty and Sean Longstaff began their careers in our academy.
The youth ranks currently feature a handful of players that Bruce has looked at in Kell Watts, Elias Sorensen, Owen Bailey and Thomas Allan, though only Allan has featured in a competitive fixture this season.
Here are some of the messages shared as fans reacted to Dawson’s remarks to The Athletic…
How much did Ashley/Charnley/Bishop pay you for that PR garbage😂
The club will never progress if they think the academy setup is fine.
But people who have won nothing & done nothing in their careers like Ben Dawson wouldn’t know that
Club full of people with tin pot standards
— Rafa Facts (@FactsRafa) March 18, 2020
Oh my word. What’s going on??? This is ambition. #nufc
— Jonathan Grieve (@jonniegrieve) March 18, 2020
😂😂😂😂😂😂
— hardy (@hardy27) March 18, 2020
Obviously he means win the CL at another club right
— Swiller (@swiller2004) March 18, 2020
😂😂😂 Ashley sells any half decent player that comes threw academy, he’s happy to take 17th place every season
— young trev (@youngtrev23) March 18, 2020
What they mean is sell our good players to top teams who can then compete in CL, and the leaches who own and run the club can look back and say, “Matty came through our academy, now he’s winning the CL with {insert top team}” and be proud. 🙄
— CC (@JamesHunt07) March 18, 2020
So players you can sell then… https://t.co/Zl4N0rSnSS
— Bill (@BillyNeyMates) March 18, 2020
In other Newcastle United news, a three-time league winner turned down the club last year during our search of a key replacement.