Newcastle United head coach Eddie Howe has a big decision to make when it comes to youngster Elliot Anderson. The 19-year-old has already impressed in pre-season with the first team so far, with Howe taking a close look at the hot prospect before deciding on his immediate future.
Anderson is highly rated at St James' Park, but the coaching staff now must weigh up if a loan move to a Championship club would be more beneficial to his development, or whether he is ready to play a role in the first-team squad for the coming Premier League campaign.
There are no shortage of suitors for the attacking playmaker, with the likes of Millwall, West Brom, Luton and Sheffield Wednesday all credited with interest. But when it comes to making an impression, Anderson can consider it a job well done already this summer.
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There will be no complacency from the youngster, but former England and Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand's message to young players in pre-season could suggest a big future for Anderson.
Speaking on his on his YouTube channel. Ferdinand offered advice to any young players given a chance to train and play for their first teams over the summer. And it's advice Anderson appears to have heeded.
"All down the years, players come in during pre-season and do well and it sticks with manager in their minds," Ferdinand said. "So young players have to go in like that and leave that manager with something that makes him think 'I need to have that with me'. Maybe not now but in six months when there’s an injury that’s who I’m calling on."
Much could yet depend on who else Newcastle are able to bring in before the transfer window closes, but Anderson would not count towards Howe's 25-man Premier League squad due to his age. The player himself is keen to show what he can do, telling our own Lee Ryder: "I want to be here. I want to force my way into the team, but, I guess, that’s the club’s decision. I’ve just got to work as hard as I can on the pitch and see what happens."
Ferdinand also had a message for the role senior players can take in heling youngsters adapt to the senior squad, and said it was something he was keen to do after difficult experiences as a young player.
"It’s making them used to that environment," he explained. "It’s daunting, it’s intimidating coming into the first-team changing room then going to training with these players that have been on your walls and superstars you’ve seen on TV.
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"Then all of a sudden you’re in that changing room, whatever level, it’s harder, it’s a more harsh environment. I always took it upon myself to make players feel comfortable in that environment. If you spoke to a lot of young players at Man United especially who came into the first-team from Cleverley, Welbeck, Anderson, Nani, Cristiano, Rooney to the Lingard’s, Lee Martins’, Chris Eagles’, Ravel Morrison, Pogba’s, they’d all tell you I would always give them time, make them feel comfortable whether it was on the training pitch or the hotel.
"I would always give them a bit of time to calm their nerves a little bit and make them feel like ‘yeah I’m bringing you in, man, we’re going to go, go training, you’re going to be cool. If there’s a problem you might look around and see me and think yeah you’ve spoke to me before’ and giving them a bit of time.
"I had it in different environments, I had it in England when I went in as a kid, my first squad, a few people didn’t really talk to me or greet me how I should’ve been as a young player and I thought I’d never want a young player to feel like that again." You can watch the full video here.
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