Newcastle United trying to fix previous mistakes with new transfer focus

Newcastle United are currently attempting to right the considerable wrongs of their chequered past.

While first team rebuilding goes on at a pace in the full glare of an appreciative audience previously worn down by neglect a more subtle rebuilding of the club is also under way below stairs. Bright young talent from across, England, Scotland, and Ireland is being lured to the club by the prospect of a fine future.

This drive to bring in tomorrow's stars is a complete reversal of United's policy in the eighties, the years between Keegan the player and Keegan the manager, when Chris Waddle, Peter Beardsley and Paul Gascoigne were criminally sacrificed on the alter of greed.

United's future was sold off in return for three sacks of gold. England superstars gone along with hope. Now the club's future is being secured by luring youthful talent not shipping it on.

It is only right and proper that when new owners with a modicum of ambition take over a football club their initial target must be a first team upgrade. Our latest custodians have admirably done that to awaken the slumbering beast that was Newcastle United.

Where season tickets could not be given away under the previous regime they are now gold dust. However if a club is to be built for the long term and not merely given a lick of paint to cover over the cracks then much deeper surgery is required.

Thankfully that is being addressed at SJP. The academy squads are being significantly strengthened after an embarrassing lack of potential was highlighted by last season's results, training facilities are to be booted into the 21st century, and even Newcastle's women's team is receiving loving attention from Amanda Staveley and her associates.

While fans have been