It’s been a promising few years on the Academy front since new owners arrived at Newcastle United.
Our Under-21s and Under-18 sides have improved in recent seasons, with us not only seeing impressive recruitment to snap up top domestic talents, but also an increase in local lads coming through.
Lewis Miley has emerged and Elliot Anderson was another huge success story in the making, only for PSR to cost us as he was sold to Nottingham Forest 12 months ago.
A year later, there appears to be a trio of Under-21 talents who are knocking on the door of Eddie Howe’s first team and ones to watch this summer.
The Athletic’s Chris Waugh has revealed a trio of 18-year-olds who look set to be handed opportunities to impress this summer ahead of a training camp in Austria and a pre-season trip to East Asia.
After pushing for a place in Howe’s plans over various periods of the 2024/25 season, full-back Leo Shahar, winger Trevan Sanusi and forward Sean Neave are thought to be the youngsters who are ‘closest’ to making the step up.
Speaking on the latest Pod on the Tyne podcast, Waugh said: _“Sean Neave and Leo Shahar, who both trained almost full time with the first team from February onwards. You also have Trevan Sanusi, who trained (with the first team) over the first half of the season before he got injured.”_
_“It’s seen as a big pre-season for players like that. They’ll come back and be involved with the first team in some capacity, either in Austria (training camp) or East Asia on the tour and we’ll see if they can grasp that chance._
_“But they are the names who are closest. These are the three who’ve been training regularly with the first team over the past year.”_
The interesting dynamic this year is also that Newcastle have qualified for the UEFA Youth League, meaning the club will be in no rush to loan out certain Under-21 talents who could be tested at a higher level in such competitions.
All three are England youth internationals who have been no strangers to training with the senior side, so it’ll be interesting to see how they get on this summer.