Former Newcastle midfielder Mikel Merino has taken aim at the club’s academy by claiming that players are not prepared for the first-team jump.
Merino claims that Real Sociedad’s academy players are always ready to make the step up, whilst those at Borussia Dortmund and Newcastle fell short of requirements.
Speaking to Mundo Deportivo, via Sport Witness, Merino said this:
I knew everyone. Yes, I was impressed by how prepared the kids in the academy are. Neither in Dortmund nor in Newcastle did I have the feeling that the homegrown players were so prepared. Here they come and they’re already up to the task.
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Does he have a point?
Whilst I cannot speak for Sociedad or Dortmund, he could be right with the academy set-up at Newcastle. Players always take time to adapt and do not seem to fully understand their role in the team, regardless of their quality.
Sean Longstaff, of course, made the breakthrough into the first-team but that came after two loan spells and at the age of 21 – which makes him a different case altogether.
What are they doing differently in Spain? That’s hard to say. Maybe they run their philosophies and ideas down through the youth teams and up to the first-team so that each and every player knows their role and understands the system they will play in before they are promoted to the squad.
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