**Newcastle United have been shopping for the future once again after raiding Barnsley for a teenage defender who has already been compared to John Stones.**
As confirmed by Sky Sports reporter Keith Downie, Newcastle have won the race to sign Barnsley's teenage sensation Josh Kenchington.
The Magpies had to part with £350,000 plus add-ons to land the 15-year-old, who has been playing at Under 18 level since he was 14.
Downie says that the deal is subject to the Premier League's family checks, and Kenchington will transfer to a school in Newcastle to continue his education alongside his training at the academy.
> [](https://twitter.com/SkySports_Keith/status/1979120500476436902)
Newcastle beat Man United, Spurs and Brighton to Josh Kenchington's signature
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Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur and Brighton were all keen on Kenchington, but it was the Magpies who won the race after having an initial £275,000 bid turned down by Barnsley.
Kenchington will join the likes of Miodrag Pivas, Park Seung-soo and Antonio Cordero among the promising youth players at the Newcastle academy.
The two-footed defender is already over six feet tall at 15, so he has the potential to be another Dan Burn-type figure at the back for Newcastle.
Newcastle need to sort out their loan department to ensure they get things right with Josh Kenchington,
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It'll be a couple of years before Kenchington will be in consideration for being sent out on loan to gain first-team experience, [which gives Ross Wilson plenty of time to repair the loans department before then.](https://nufcfeed.com/one-big-area-ross-wilson-needs-to-overhaul-at-newcastle-united-asap-1632047)
It's all well and good signing these promising youngsters, but we have to develop them properly, and one way we've been letting them down recently is sending them out on poor loans.
Kenchington is a name to keep an eye on in the academy over the next couple of years. If he's as good as the hype suggests, we may see him break into the first team earlier than Lewis Miley did.