Sean Neave and Leo Shaharplaceholder image
Sean Neave and Leo Shahar | Getty Images
Newcastle United latest news: Eddie Howe has revealed what the club’s academy players need to do to force themselves into his first-team.
Eddie Howe has revealed what players like Leo Shahar and Sean Neave need to do to become a regular in his first-team.
Both Shahar and Neave have made their competitive first-team debuts in recent weeks, with Neave coming on as a late substitute away in Baku against Qarabag before Shahar did similar in the return leg at St James’ Park. Both players have been regulars in Howe’s first-team matchday squads for the last 12 months or so, but had to remain very patient before making their respective debuts.
There haven’t been too many players to rise through the academy and break into the Newcastle United first-team in recent years, but the pathway has been set by Lewis Miley on how to make that transition a success. Miley was thrust into the team amid an injury crisis in late-2023 and impressed greatly during his first few performances.
Miley had made his senior debut prior to that run in the team, but only became a regular because of those injury issues affecting Howe’s side.
Eddie Howe makes Sean Neave & Leo Shahar demand
Hopefully, Neave, Shahar and co don’t have to follow the exact path Miley took and that they can continue to impress and be drip fed into the first-team if and when needed by Howe. Until then, what do they have to do to impress the head coach and force themselves into his plans?
The Gazette put that question to Howe, here was his response: “Well, they've got a long journey ahead of them.
“I think I've said many times in this seat, the hardest transition is to go from academy player into the first team. It's such a difficult jump and such a big jump for all of the young lads to take.
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“They have to work at their games. They have to improve in every moment. They can't waste a day.
“Sometimes that's difficult to do because there'll be very small groups training, as there has been this season. There haven't been 20 players training regularly for them to probably fully immerse themselves into that world of development through their training. It's been more individual-based in smaller groups, and that places even more emphasis on their learning coming from themselves, with our support. So they've got a big journey ahead of them.
“I think what we've tried to do is help them play as many games as they can, so when we have been able to release them to play 23s games, even at the cost of being on our bench, we think that's been really important because they need to play.
“If they don't play, they won't get better. We've tried to facilitate that so they're still getting the game time that they need.”
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