Eddie Howe commends Newcastle legend for job he's doing behind the scenes at the club

A key area that Newcastle United fell far behind in over the years has been the academy. With so much talent out there, Newcastle had, for years, failed to capitalise on that.

Since the takeover in 2021 Newcastle have been making strides to repair the damage and get caught up to the rest of the league in that regard.

It may be one of the best things Dan Ashworth did in his short time at the club was to set Newcastle on a course to not only produce their own stars, but to poach those youngsters with star potential from other clubs to develop them for the first team.

Newcastle have signed some very promising youngsters over the past couple of years, none have caught the eye more than Trevan Sanusi who looked very good in pre-season.

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Eddie Howe has praised the job being done by Steve Harper in the academy

However, Newcastle are now producing some fine local talent on a much more regular basis. While there have been a few Geordies who have come through the academy and made it into the first team, we've not really produced anyone who would be described as top quality by those not connected with the club.

Recently, though, that has changed with the emergence of Elliot Anderson and Lewis Miley who Eddie Howe has hailed as 'elite' players to The Chronicle.

"We are working in tandem with the Academy. I have a really good relationship with Steve Harper and I have been down to the Academy a couple of times in recent weeks to spend some time with the staff.

"It is in great hands and there are some really passionate people there and great coaches. I think the work is taking place to try to produce future superstars for Newcastle. Everyone wants the same thing. It has done already, you look at the players that have come through in recent years.

"Elliot Anderson and Lewis Miley there have been some outstanding individuals. Those players? They are elite players. So I think it has done really, really well."

Academy players are seen as the ideal way to get around PSR

The article in question was aa discussion about PSR and how it has hampered Newcastle's development and how producing academy players is the perfect way around the pitfalls of PSR.

The irony is, of course, that Elliot Anderson was sold alongside Yankuba Minteh with the very purpose of fending off PSR problems.

It's hopefully a lesson that has been learned so that it never happens again, but seeing Elliot Anderson leave, even if it was for a decent sum of money, is something that hasn't gone down well with Eddie Howe and the Newcastle fans alike.