Newcastle United’s new owners have shown their commitment to recruitment within the playing squad following a £90million spend in the January transfer window, and now they are looking to back that up with more additions to their backroom staff.
The Magpies have already pulled off a big bit of business with the recruitment of Dan Ashworth from Brighton & Hove Albion as the club’s new sporting director, but Amanda Staveley and co. aren’t stopping there.
Newcastle’s Saudi owners are keen to continue their rebuild of the club by laying the foundations for the future within their academy side, with the aim of producing top quality players of their own in order to develop them into the first team.
According to The Irish Sun, Newcastle are ready to pounce for Chelsea academy bosses Neil Bath and Jim Fraser as they look to revamp their youth system on Tyneside.
Bath is seen as one of the perfect candidates to help the Magpies achieve their goals, and the head of Chelsea’s youth development has overseen an academy which is renowned for churning out plenty of talented young players over the years.
In Chelsea’s current squad are the likes of Andreas Christensen, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Mason Mount and Reece James, who are all established members of the first team after graduating through the academy and have helped the club achieve plenty of success in recent times.
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On top of that, players such as Tammy Abraham, Fikayo Tomori and Marc Guehi have all been developed in the Blues' academy before being sold on for profitable fees, and now the Magpies are aiming for the same results themselves should they acquire Bath’s services.
But Bath hasn’t been able to achieve all of that success alone, with his assistant Fraser, the club’s head of youth recruitment, also playing a key role in proceedings, as the Blues have become notable for having one of the best academies in world football.
And following Chelsea’s recent turmoil in which the UK Government placed sanctions on Russian owner Roman Abramovich, the club are unable to offer new contracts to players and staff, of which the Magpies are keen to take advantage of.
According to the report, sources have claimed that Newcastle’s interest in Bath and Fraser is being discussed among agents and academy personnel across the Premier League, yet the Magpies could face the same struggles in which they’ve had with Ashworth.
Despite being recruited from Brighton early this year, he will not be able to take up his role until after the summer transfer window, with the Seagulls demanding that he sees out his period of “gardening leave” unless the Magpies front £5 million in compensation, yet Newcastle still convinced him to sign nonetheless.
But a similar situation is feared with the Chelsea academy duo, with their contracts in west London expected to also include a long notice period, although money certainly talks and Newcastle’s new owners seem willing to heavily invest wherever they see fit within the club as they prepare for a bigger future.
