Get down – or go down – with kids

May 16 2010 by Neil Farrington, Sunday Sun

THOUGH he would have us believe he is blazing a trail, Mike Ashley is merely treading a well-worn path in getting down with Newcastle United’s kids.

And he, never mind the fans he suddenly seems so keen to connect with, should need no reminding that the road to Hell is paved with just such good intentions.

Every 30-something United supporter will remember the Magpies’ last concerted attempt to give youth its head.

After all, it very nearly landed them in the old Third Division.

Ossie Ardiles won plenty of plaudits but precious few points as Newcastle’s young guns were spiked and the club flirted with extinction.

And that, with a better crop of kids at least as good as today’s vintage.

Proof of that – and the proof Ashley can and should draw on – came at Peterborough in a Carling Cup tie only last September.

Where Manchester United won the real thing with kids, Newcastle’s youngsters came badly unstuck at the worst club in what now passes itself off as the Championship.

And while it’s fair to argue that the a herd like Giggs, Scholes, Beckham and the Nevilles come along no more than once in a generation, the Magpies’ new breed – blooded by Chris Hughton en masse – looked like lambs to the slaughter at London Road.

The FA Youth Cup is a fine trophy, but all that glitters in it is not gold.

So Ashley cannot afford to have been dazzled by the sight of Newcastle almost reaching the final of the competition a month ago.

No, that night at Peterborough, when a 2-0 defeat would have been far worse but for goalkeeper Tim Krul – whose path to regular first-team football, ironically, remains blocked – was a safer if sorrier gauge of indigenous resources at St James’ Park.

And while “indigenous” may not be the way to describe Haris Vuckic, the 17-year-old Slovenian and Krul are the only members of the Magpies’ wannabe set who you would describe as sure things.

Plenty of the rest have massive potential. But that is a fragile commodity which often fails to survive the slow and steadiest of transitions to senior football, let alone a crash landing in the Premier League.

No, now that Ashley and his men in situ at St James’ are so mindful of misrepresentation, misrepresenting Newcastle’s boys’ brigade would be a man-sized mistake.

And, with balancing the books another preoccupation, it would also be a false economy.

The less said about much of the rest of the latest statement of intent from the Gallowgate bunker, much the better.