New Newcastle United signing says he already has a hero to look up to at the club that he hopes to emulate

When players talk about other players they look up to you usually expect them to throw out names like Alan Shearer, Ronaldinho or Thierry Henry, but Newcastle United's latest addition, Kyle Fitzgerald has named someone closer to home.

Kyle Fitzgerald joined Newcastle from Galway United in January upon turning 18 and becomes one of the latest players in Paul Mitchell's young army who he believes can push to breakthrough into the first-team.

He was followed through the door by young Turkish talent Baran Yildiz and the pair will be joined in the summer by Georgian Vakhtang Salia when he turns 18.

The search for young talent continues, and it seems that Paul Mitchell has got the recruitment presentation polished off as at one point, Newcastle would lose out on these players to other Premier League sides.

Serena Taylor/newcastleunited.com

Kyle Fitzgerald wants to follow in the footsteps of ... Alex Murphy

Indeed, young Irishman Fitzgerald has spoken to the club's official website and talked about why he chose Newcastle over other options on the table and he mentions a Newcastle player whose footsteps he hopes to follow.

“The project really attracted me.

“Steve Harper and Paul Midgley (Head of Youth Recruitment) showed me the pathway of players such as Alex Murphy, who has came through Galway’s Academy and then signed for Newcastle like myself.

“I used to go to the same school as Alex but I was two or three years younger than him. I did look up to him because he was in Galway’s first-team when I was at the Academy. Hopefully, I can follow in similar footsteps.”

Newcastle beat Wolves and Brighton to Fitzgerald's signature

Fitzgerald had reportedly held talks with Brighton and Wolves before deciding to join Newcastle and emulate Alex Murphy.

Alex Murphy is currently out on loan at Bolton Wanderers where he actually found himself on the scoresheet at the weekend, however the youngster has been knocking on the door for first-team action for a while and has managed a couple of outings for the first team as well as several appearances on the bench.

While beating the likes of Wolves should be a regular thing for Newcastle, Brighton have proven to be a top club for young players to go to and develop, so the fact that we can now convince youngsters to join us over them is a good sign. Next up is beating Chelsea as they have a strong record of beating us to young talent.