Pardew Pleased With Youngsters' Progress

By Steven Back

With national concerns that young English talent isn't been given a chance to emerge in the Barclays Premier League, Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew is buoyant on the progress of those coming through the Magpies' Academy.

Throughout his managerial career, Pardew has been an advocate of giving homegrown youngsters first-team chances, with the likes of Sammy Ameobi, Paul Dummett, Adam Armstrong and Rolando Aarons testament to that in the current Magpies' squad.

Pardew is glad to see the North-East producing great, local talent and believes Newcastle are one of the better clubs in the top flight for providing a pathway through the ranks.

"Young players need to deliver," explained the boss.

"I've been playing them all my career. Mark Noble at West Ham, Jonjo Shelvey at Charlton, (Alex) Oxlade-Chamberlain at Southampton, and this year Aarons and hopefully Armstrong to come.

"They must be ready to play and ready to pull on a big shirt, because the Newcastle shirt is a big shirt.

"I think that it's always important for a city that it is producing players. We are very much focused on our local talent and we are starting to see dividends from that. Long may it continue and certainly we are making inroads for bringing them into the first team."

United's second string currently sit top of the Barclays Under-21 Premier League division two, while the Club's under-18s have only lost one of their last five fixtures.

And Pardew believes prospective starlets can use the likes of Dummett, Ameobi, Armstrong and Aarons as inspiration.

"When you are selling a club to a parent of a ten-year-old they need to see a route to the first team, and at a lot of Premier League clubs they can't see that route sometimes," he continued.

"But it's very obvious here that you can If you are good enough.

"It's very tough as we are getting players from all around the world, but we are delivering on that (youth) front and it's great news for the city and the Club."