Regarding the possible signing of Ben Tozer and the shocking last minute defeat of our second string. It’s interesting that everyone, including myself, have assumed that Glenn Roeder was a good Academy Director. I’ve been wondering what evidence there is to support that view.

In the season he left the job to take over as Caretaker Manager we reached the FA Youth Cup semi final, and did so again last season. Success in this competition is generally regarded as good yardstick with which to judge the success of Academies.

However, I would imagine that the bulk of the young players representing us v Shrewsbury last night would be players actually brought into the system by GR - which would not be very encouraging.

What has our Academy under GR actually produced in the way of senior players? Not a helluva lot is the unfortunate answer. Of the 28 players currently assigned first team squad numbers, nine came through the youth development system.

Harper and Shola graduated a long time back, leaving 7 (I’ve ignored N’Zogbia who was bought in and never played for the Youth Team): Ramage, Taylor, Edgar, Forster, Pattison, Troisi and Carroll (Paul Huntington, of course, was released in the summer and went to Leeds).

That is perhaps not too bad, but the following batch looks a lot weaker, for whatever reason.

Sadly, there has been a lot of chopping and changing at the Academy, including the hiatus under Beardsley and Wharton that lead to several young players leaving the club, including Tery McDermott’s son.

Since GR left the Director’s job we seem to have had a procession of Directors, and I still find it difficult to conclude that we give this job the priority it really deserves.

Meanwhile, it has been confirmed that Newcastle United under-18s postponed match due to the FA Youth clash, will play their Tyne-Wear derby fixture at Sunderland on Thursday, December 20 at 11am.