Newcastle United owners have now completed stunning new Academy plan – Top level resources and staffing | OneFootball

These Newcastle United owners aren’t messing around.

Only twenty months ago they took over a football club that was a complete shambles.

Almost a decade and a half of Mike Ashley, had left a shell of a club ran by a skeleton staff, that looked certain to be relegated.

Never mind the countless issues below the surface, caused by all those years of Ashley refusing to allow a penny to be spent on the club unless forced to.

The incredible Eddie Howe led fightback to avoid relegation and then go on to finish top four in their first full season, was always going to be the headline news regarding the achievements of the Newcastle United owners.

However, just as importantly, they are tackling these countless areas of the club that had been neglected for so long, things that are essential for the long-term health of an ambitious football club.

One aspect of this has seen the Newcastle United owners taking on the mammoth ongoing task of recruiting literally hundreds of new staff, to ensure the best possible levels of professionalism in every area.

One of those many areas, is the Academy.

Starved of essential resources and proper levels of staffing, that has all changed.

The training ground guru site pulling it all together, showing just what has been achieved already by the Newcastle United owners, declaring how they have ‘Completed their new Academy recruitment department following a major overhaul.’

The training ground guru explaining just how bad things had got due to Mike Ashley -‘ The Magpies were 27th in our Academy Productivity Rankings for 2021/22, putting them behind 21 other Category One Academies. Scouting and recruitment has been a major focus [for the new Newcastle United owners]’

A total of 13 new staff have arrived at the club. As TGG has previously reported,

Sporting Director Dan Ashworth has been the man tasked with turning the situation around, amongst the many other areas of the club he is responsible for. Ashworth has only been at St James’ Park for 12 months but when it comes to the Newcastle United Academy productivity since joining in June 2022.

Dan Ashworth has overseen the appointment of 13 new Academy staff to completely overhaul it and put the proper levels of staffing and resources in place.

The new staff have arrived from a number of rival Premier League clubs including Man City, Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal and West Ham.

The training ground guru site listing the now impressive roll call of Newcastle’s Academy recruitment staff below:

Paul Midgley: Head of Youth Recruitment (ex Man City and Leeds)Paul McLaren: Head of UK scouting 13-18 (ex Man City and Arsenal)Paul Baker: Lead North Scout (job change from within under new structure)Delroy Ebanks: Lead South Scout (ex West Ham, Fulham and FA)Glenn Craggs: Head of Local Recruitment (already in place)Drew Beardsley: U5-U11 Recruitment Officer (already in place)Andy Basterfield: (Ex Man U and Preston and FA) North West Regional scoutDean Edwards: (Ex Stoke, Stockport and Birmingham) North West West Regional scoutWayne Spooner: (ex Man City and Everton) Yorkshire Regional ScoutAmos Mukiza: (ex Leicester and Peterborough) Midlands Regional ScoutRoss Thorpe: (ex Leeds) Midlands Regional ScoutAbdul Habib: (ex Crystal Palace) London/ South East Regional ScoutDan Risk: (ex Chelsea) London/ South Regional ScoutAndy Gill: (Ex Leeds and Man United) South West Regional ScoutEddie Black: U9-U14 Lead Local Professional Club Scout (ex Arsenal)Michael Hutchinson: U9-U14 Assistant Local Professional Club Scout (promotion from within)Claire Burrows: Recruitment Operations Manager (ex Leicester)

As always with investment in areas such as this, the visible benefits at first team level won’t be seen for any number of years.

However, this is how a properly run club operates, building all the time for the long-term, putting as many solid foundations and initiatives in place as is humanly possible, to give the football club the vest possible chance of ongoing success in five, ten, fifteen, twenty years time…

The exact opposite of what Mike Ashley did to our great football club, it was all about ripping out all the benefits for him personally, not caring for a second what state the club would be in the following season, never mind ten and twenty years down the line.