BRUTAL honesty is a core theme at Newport County AFC’s academy, about previous shortcomings, the prospect of youngsters bursting into the first team in the short term and the need for much, much better facilities.
Next week is a vote on the Exiles’ ownership that will be huge for the future of the club but another big change has been happening on the quiet, and there are no quick fixes.
County have reshaped their academy management team with Luke Hussey, who joined the club in August 2022, at the helm.
There has been a recognition that such a vital department of the club has been neglected and the long, painstaking process has started towards the ultimate aim of having a conveyor belt of local talent ready for the Football League.
“For a club like ours, the academy has to be central to what we do with a connection to the first team,” said Hussey, from Somerset and formerly with Bristol City.
“The academy has been repositioned within the club because I would say it has historically been on the periphery rather than central to the plans.
“The board have been really supportive in investing in the academy and letting us get a bigger [management] team with a bit more expertise.
“We are at an embryonic stage and there is a lot going on at the club, so that has perhaps gone unnoticed.
“You will see a small spike in the players we are dealing with right now at the top end of the academy but this is a long-term plan.
“Fans don’t generally understand that most academies are on a six to eight-year cycle and this is a young academy that has not really had a consistent plan.
“Once you get people in posts and keep them in posts with a programme that you are confident will work, keep that going over a long period and inevitably you will have more success.
“That’s our strategy, to change the dynamic of how we are working and lean into the culture of the club – industrious, local, tough.
“If people see a change in academy staff then they expect an immediate response but the benefits come in the long-term.”
FIRST TEAM PROSPECTS
That is where the honesty in dealings with first team manager Graham Coughlan and assistant Joe Dunne, who both have backgrounds in age-grade football, is vital.
“It’s about being brave and honest,” said Hussey. “That trust with the first team manager has to be around us saying what pathways we believe a player should have.
“The manager has been really supportive and has allowed players to be around first team training but if we send players that are not good enough and are not ready then it’s not good for that individual, the first team or the academy.
“Because we are lean, we are not going to be sending a huge amount of players over.
“We sent five over for pre-season and they benefited from it but they are not going to affect the first-team squad yet, they are probably a couple of years away.
“Fans need some understanding and patience because there is not a 16, 17 or 18-year-old who is ready; Kiban Rai has done brilliantly but he still has to go through a learning process to be ready for the Football League.”
There is pride at the progress of Rai, who scored his first professional goal in the Carabao Cup clash with Premier League Brentford.
However, in recent times only Lewis Collins has come through to be an EFL regular and the forward is currently rebuilding with regular action at Torquay in National League South.
County have helped develop other clubs' young players on loan rather than having their own individuals that managers feel can make the step up.
Fans can grumble about Player X not getting their chance but few have proved the judgement calls to be wrong by making the Football League grade elsewhere, although current first teamer Nathan Wood has a second chance thanks to his Cymru Premier exploits.
The Exiles' financial situation led to a big released list last summer with Rai the only player offered a professional contract because he could be a first-team contender.
The hope is that next year the likes of Corey Evans, Moses Alexander-Walker, Riley Lonergan, Morgan Evans, Jac Norris and others will be pushing for deals.
Coughlan’s squad is stretched but the manager will also play the long game; don’t expect a glut of debuts in the EFL Trophy as there have been in the past.
“The gaffer has said that you should never just give debuts away and I am 100 per cent in agreement with that,” said Hussey.
“They can't be token gestures, there has to be a purpose behind it. It has to be part of a plan with the realistic expectations of playing league football.
“What we are miss out on here, which we aspire to have, is a development squad to bridge the gap but we need to cut our cloth accordingly at the moment.”
Finances must be mentioned when it comes to County’s plans – an upgrade on their facilities at Lliswerry High School is essential.
RE-INVESTING
If the club, who don’t own a ground or training base, are to be sustainable then they need to develop and sell players, with evidence provided by a Supporters Trust-owned club in Devon.
“Exeter have been really stable for years,” said Hussey. “In fact, all the academies around here have.
“Once you have that stability you make more informed decisions about players and it becomes more about judgement than luck.
“There are definitely nine or ten players within our system at the moment who we think are high-potential players who will probably have a value outside of this club.
“We probably need to look after them disproportionately and then when you sell one, you reinvest and the academy grows.
“I've been going to Exeter for so many years and they keep growing after selling academy products.
“We are still at a stage where there has not been a great deal of investment, there has not been a massive infrastructure or facilities, so returns will be the same.
“We know we are one of the lowest resourced academies in the Football League and that shows in our productivity. It goes hand in hand.”
IDENTIFICATION
It is telling that County rarely feature in brackets next to the names of players in Wales age-grade squads, although there are plenty of Gwent youngsters who are on the books of other clubs.
Bristol Rovers’ Luca Hoole, who went to school at Ysgol Gyfun Gwynllyw, captained Wales Under-21s at Rodney Parade this month while first-teamer Omar Taylor-Clarke, Josey Casa-Grande, Zak Bell and Zac King-Phillips are just a few of the Bristol City contingent.
“Our vision is to prioritise local talent for our first team,” said Hussey. “The first part of our mission is to identify and attract local people.
“The reason it's number one is because it's where we are really weak - the recruitment historically hasn't been great.
“When I left Bristol City we had 11 Newport players in our academy, so when I came here I said that has to stop! We cannot let any other club pick up our local talent.
“It’s difficult when in direct competition with clubs that have a £20million building with all the pitches but what we can sell is a really good environment.
“We care and given the attention that allows a youngster to flourish while sometimes bigger academies can be a bit cold.
“Academies will only be as good as their recruitment and that is an area we are putting a lot of focus on because I think it’s somewhere we have failed in the past.”
EXCELLENCE ON A BUDGET
There is a long list of what County need to improve if they are to give the next generations a shot at becoming Football League players but there is also a lot that they are doing right.
At a pre-training meeting with the under-18s, head coach Ben Gast showed footage of a win against their Forest Green Rovers counterparts; it wasn’t a one-way lecture with the help of Hudl footage, the youngsters were challenged to spot the good and bad themselves.
Wales C international Kayne McLaggon, once of Southampton and still playing in the Cymru Premier with Barry Town United, chipped in with insights from the back of the room along with Hussey.
The aim is to transfer from classroom to training ground to matchday, and this meeting provided evidence of it working.
A corner taker was taken to task about putting the ball into the box too quickly after his signal, which was not giving his teammates the chance to react to it. A week or so later the academy’s X account put out footage of a set-piece goal.
Goals! ⚽️⚽️⚽️
— Newport County AFC Academy (@youth_county) September 10, 2023
Here are the u17 goals from our 3-2 win over Exeter City
C.Evans
M.Alexander-Walker
N.Sanca
⬇️⬇️⬇️#OneClubOneCounty pic.twitter.com/T4fy1Pp25N
With the odds stacked against youngsters making the grade as professionals, there is also a focus on off-field matters with the desire to be excellent despite not having the riches of other clubs.
“We are probably similar to the first team in that we are not one of the best funded but we have enough to operate and what we have to do as staff is be excellent at all the stuff that doesn’t cost money,” said Hussey.
“The work on the grass doesn’t cost money, nor do standards, behaviours and relationships with players.
“Our facilities are not good enough at the moment, and that is something for the longer-term, but we have people here with expertise in their area, who are really good relationship builders and, most importantly, know what good looks like.
“It's not just recognising that an under-11 has a really good chance of being a professional footballer, it's understanding what he needs at each part of the journey to give him the best opportunity.
“We have that team of people here now and hopefully it can become a conveyor belt of talent. I wish I could speed things up but this is a long-term project and all of us are excited about it.”
County's first-year scholars were introduced to the crowd at half-time of Saturday's League Two clash with Barrow.
The hope is that the next few years of learning can help them be in the thick of the action on the Rodney Parade pitch.
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