NUFC's Bigi Player Development Problem

As I explained earlier this month, the 2013-14 season is pretty much over for Newcastle United. Yohan Cabaye is now a Parisian super-sub. Thankfully, both derbies are done with for the season. There is no threat of relegation, nor any hope or desire to push up into the Europa League. Newcastle went out of both cups so quickly that you could be excused for forgetting that it was in them at all.

But there's still one reason to play out the string, even if it means plenty of losing. With nothing else to care about, why not use the remainder of the year to see what some of Newcastle's top reserves are capable of? Trying out some of the reserves can help address one of the biggest hidden problems the club currently faces.

Two recent stories perfectly captured the player development disaster that's been lost in Newcastle's other recent missteps. First, there's the futile attempt by Mark Douglas to figure out what happened to Gaël Bigirimana. After a few relatively promising appearances last season, Bigi has completely fallen off the radar in 2013-14. Obviously, he had plenty of good players ahead of him this year, but the club's attitude about him is pretty disturbing. As Douglas recounted, "the last time I spoke to someone with influence at Newcastle they suggested it might never happen for him at the club, despite the obvious talent he had. When asked why, there was no real explanation." That anyone would give that assessment to the press, even anonymously, is thoroughly embarrassing.

The other story, of course, was reserve coach Willie Donachie's resignation after apparently hitting promising defender Remie Streete. Even outside of the violent outburst, Donachie's reserves weren't exactly excelling, sitting in 20th place in the Under-21 Premier League. And it's not as if the poor performance is because players are being moved to the senior team - who's broken through from the reserves since Tim Krul and Andy Carroll?

Both of these items speak to a total lack of attention to preparing the club's young players to succeed, which will have severe consequences in the years to come. It also demonstrates a serious flaw in Mike Ashley's supposed vision of building a sustainable, relatively inexpensive squad which manages to stay in the Premier League every year. Even by Ashley's own low standards, the lack of focus on the reserves will eventually doom him.

Among baseball teams in the US, a perfectly acceptable method of squad development involves relying on bringing players through the minor leagues, the equivalent of the reserve system. Teams will often trade their established stars for more young players, with the goal of having a youthful cohort that matures and blossoms simultaneously, perhaps suffering a couple seasons of growing pains in the process. Relegation prevents a Premier League club from completely following this model.  But you can see how a modified version of this approach would perfectly fit in with the constraints that Ashley has shackled on Newcastle. Of course, that requires a level of competence in player development that seems to have eluded the coaching staff thus far.

So with nothing else to play for this season, why not open the floodgates to the kids from here on out? Sammy Ameobi must continue to start - in fact, he's looked pretty promising in his recent appearances, so there's no real reason to replace him. Though not a reserve, there's no reason why 24-year-old Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa should continue to sit on the bench and stall his development. Once Bigirimana returns from his ankle injury, why not give him a chance to prove his critics wrong? After any threat of relegation has been extinguished, even the club's teenagers, like Streete, should be given some chances to show their worth. 

This summer is going to be pivotal for Newcastle's future. In order to make the most of whatever money there is to spend on new players, there must be an accurate evaluation of the club's youngsters. A tightfisted approach to player recruitment means that the reserves are vital to squad development. It's a shame no one at the club seems to be able to give them the necessary boost.

Comments

[Munster John]

We had a director of football who should have been out there sorting out loan deals for these young players to further develop why else was he here? Well that failed miserbly, me thinks these young players get threated to well up here and live the lifes of players who have made it wads of cash and flash cars and such and then their is the women and out on the town partying like it was 1999 never to bothered weather they make the first team or not their has to be some reason clubs like Liverpool, Southhampton, Everton have top top players coming through maybe our guys are think they to good to clean the first team players boots or get the bus or train nufc a big club? Comon pull the other one, only thing we have that big is our fan base and a stadium littered with cheap s--rts dir-ct bullshit signs.