Michael Carrick has been back home on Tyneside this week. If Newcastle United's owners had their way, the former England international would never have left in the first place.
For all the money the hierarchy will spend on new players, overhauling the academy and transforming the Magpies into the 'club of the north' is central to their long-term vision. The end goal? Convincing the next generation to stay put rather than moving hundreds of miles away to fulfil their dreams as Carrick did.
Newcastle may have wheeled out Peter Beardsley to present Carrick with a cake at St James' Park on his 13th birthday, and invited the youngster to play in the Milk Cup a year early, but there was no pathway at the time after the reserve side was abolished.
