Newcastle's summer transfer plan Ashworth will love after £60,000 bargain ignored in Ashley era

Newcastle United supporters may have been expecting someone very different, but Alex Murphy could prove a fitting first summer signing of this new era. Yes, Newcastle will spend millions on first-team ready stars in the coming months, but the hierarchy ultimately want to create a sustainable club where talented youngsters eventually make the step up from the academy to represent the first team.

Eddie Howe, himself, has spoken about how 'that part of the club needs to be brought closer to the first team' in the years to come. Central to that will be spotting some of the very best prospects both in the North East and further afield in countries like Ireland.

It is important to stress that Murphy will go straight into the under-23s if, as expected, the deal goes through and there are no guarantees that the Galway United youngster will ever play for Newcastle's first team. However, at the same time, Murphy has been earmarked as a player with real potential, having made his professional debut at just 16 and captaining his country at under-18 level.

Murphy can operate as both a marauding left-back and a ball-playing centre-back and such have been his mature performances in the Irish second tier, the 17-year-old attracted interest from a host of clubs across the UK. The fact that Newcastle are close to winning the race shows how much the club has changed since the Ashley era.

Indeed, in 2009, Newcastle, inexplicably, passed up the chance to sign another young Irish full-back by the name of Seamus Coleman. It was Everton who, ultimately, coughed up the initial £60,000 for a player who has gone on to captain Ireland and make 377 appearances for the Toffees.

That is not meant to be a direct comparison as Coleman was 20 when he