the NUFC academy conveyor belt these days. This from nufc.com

Three Lions for Three Magpies: Bairns Honoured

Three Newcastle youngsters have been called up by England U15's for a forthcoming International tournament.

Ross Gardner, Lewis Guy and Neale McDermott will be either in the squad or on standby for games against:

Spain 9th Feb @ Rushden & Dmnds Holland 22nd Feb @ Crawley Town Germany 24th Feb @ Southend United

(all matches are 8pm ko's, with the other two competing teams facing each other in a 6pm kickoff at the same venue.)

Best wishes to all three - no confirmation of whether SKY will pick up any of the games for live transmission or not as yet

Now why doesn't the official site tell us these things? Also remember that we had young Michael Chopra and A. Nother called up recently for an u.18 camp in La Marga or some where like that.

Add in Hughes, the Caldwell boys, Ameobi and Coppinger and our Academy and reserves are really starting to produce for the club.

-- Anonymous, February 02, 2001

Answers

it would just be wonderful if the young McDermott could be like his dad, apart from the drinking of course

-- Anonymous, February 02, 2001

I think any club would be lucky to be able to promote three youth players into the first team squad a season. Manure have proved it can be done but have been fortunate that they all came at the same time.

The signs are there that we have a chance in the future of being able to promote a few. We have a few youth players getting honours for their respective countries.

-- Anonymous, February 02, 2001

>>>>>Now why doesn't the official site tell us these things?

Two sides to that question really. Yes - I'd like to know who our youngsters are and yet - should we just let them get on with it in relative obscurity and not draw attention to them? I know we're all expecting Chopra to be a sort of reincarnation of Beardsley & Shearer combined and I'm already thinking that unless the lad is Maradonna we might find him a bit of a disappointment.

Just the other day, Alex Ferguson was saying that it was impossible to spot the youngsters who would make it (which shows how monumentally lucky he was with the Beckham/Scholes etc batch). He said that they look good at 16, they are internationals - 3 years later they haven't come on as hoped, and they disappear without trace.

Still, it's reassuring to know that we have got some good youngsters coming through. Let's hope they make it and that the production line is rolling again. I suspect, judging by previous comments about the website, that this fact has not been mentioned because the people responsible are clueless rather than any effort to protect our kids.

-- Anonymous, February 02, 2001

My understanding is that players cannot be contracted to a pro Club until they are 16, although they can attend coaching sessions with a pro Club before that.

If I'm right, presumably these U-15 players, while affiliated to the Club, are not actually Newcastle United players, and may never be.

-- Anonymous, February 02, 2001

Didn't Manure sign a player that we had at Newcastle?

-- Anonymous, February 02, 2001

Don't the less scrupulous clubs (eg. ManU) enter into some sort of financial agreement with the parents ensuring that the boy signs for them at 16. I seem to remember that that is how Beckham ended up at Old Trafford, allegedly.

-- Anonymous, February 02, 2001