Newcastle trail French starlet Diakite.
Posted on March 14th, 2010 | 95 Comments |
We have already seen signs that this could work in the long term with players like Nile Ranger and Haris Vuckic both having been brought to the club under the same pretence and both looking like they could have strong career’s in the game.
Next up for the scouting networks attention is a young lad from France that goes by the name of Adama Diakite, currently playing with Lens. It appears our new scout Graham Carr has been over to France to watch the 19 year old in action and has given a positive report to the club about the young Frenchman.
Diakite plays up front or just behind the strikers but is yet to make an appearance for the Lens first team so it appears to be a case of ‘one for the future’ as the Toon try to lure the player to Tyneside and out of the clutches of Werder Bremen and Juventus, both of whom are said to be interested in the youngster. The fee would probably be decided by a tribunal who would decide how much compensation would need to be paid to Lens FC.
Graham Carr has also been ruling the eye over Tom Cleverley, the Manchester United midfielder who is on loan at Watford, and has highlighted the young Englishman as a possible addition to our midfield. Cleverley’s direct running and goal scoring exploits have lead to many plaudits this season and the exposure to first team football can only aid the player’s development.
I’m unsure whether Manchester United would be willing to let him leave Old Trafford and come to us, or if he is in our price range as it’s well documented just how expensive good, young English players can be. What this does show though is that the scouting network appears to be back up and running and should serve the club well going forward.
We should always be looking towards the future to replace today’s player’s, it will have to be done at some point, and looking at young players such as Diakite, Cleverley and O’Hara should undoubtedly be the way forward as long as they are bled into the team with some experience around them.
Special mention should go to Graham Carr aswell. If these are the players he is looking at then it is clear he will become a valued addition to the club. It’s nice to hear about a scout actually going to matches to see the player themselves rather than fiddling around on YouTube!
My only concern is a possible chance of us becoming too focused on youth players. We still need to strenghten the first team and that should take priority for next season as it looks increasingly likely that we will secure a return to the top tier of English football.
Finding the next Messi would be great though, wouldn’t it?
NUFCBlog Author: toonsy
toonsy has written 643 articles on this blog.
Nice article, i share your concerns about focusing too much on the youth however i keep telling myself our own youths are coming up at the moment so it may be a case of just bringing up the players and keeping a blend of different ages and replenishing the squad when people retire (i.e. butt) carrol, forster, krul, kadar, ranger all coming through at the moment. we just need some midfielders in the summer (skjelbred, please for gods sake lets bring him in just to end the rumuours :D that and hes a canny player)aslong as we dont overload with youth players we should be ok.