After the team’s recent successes in the new Portuguese Youth Cup, Newcastle U FC Manager Rolf Bergström was interviewed by The Athlete’s Georgia Caulkina to discuss the team’s successes, progress, and the rumoured takeover from a Middle Eastern-based consortium.

Newcastle U FC Press Office.
2 The Quayside, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE1, UK


GC: Rolf, You must be very happy with these recent cup successes?
RB: Yes that is right. We were planning for the introduction of the Youth Teams for many months, so that when the competition started, we felt we were in a reasonable position to provide the younger players with specialist training and to enable them to compete well against other Youth teams. The introduction of the Youth Cups was a pleasant surprise and of course we are all delighted here that we have had these wonderful successes.

GC: What preparations are you referring to?
RB: Well, first we recruited some additional trainers specialised in working with players under the age of 23 so that we could specialise on different skills at the Gosforth Park training facility. Next we made it clear to the Chairman that we would need to invest in a new stadium to accommodate the new youth team, and I have to say, David has not let us down. The Sir Bobby Robson Academy Stadium is quite magnificent. It holds 20,000 fans and has all the facilities I had hoped for and helps us to ensure that we have as great support for our youth teams as we have for the senior team. We also recruited some tremendous youth prospects to supplement our younger players and give us a great chance to compete even against some senior teams in the league as well as to ultimately strengthen our own senior team.

GC: Don’t you think Rolf that a 20,000 capacity stadium is a bit too large for lower league football? You have been regularly attracting crowds of around 11,000 so barely filling half the stadium?
RB: Well, you may have a point. It was hard to predict the sort of crowds we would get, especially as the youth team exceeded our expectations by winning the 4th division title and gaining promotion to the third tier. That was a magnificent achievement and I am delighted that we have been able to maintain 3rd tier status and regularly beating senior teams without pushing these young players too hard and so compromising their training. After all, the long term ambition here is to shape them into great players for our senior team.

GC: Can you tell us something about these new talents the club signed?
RB. We were lucky to be able to sign https://www.virtualmanager.com/players/13792949-renau-magallanes from Danish club
https://www.virtualmanager.com/clubs/550437
. Renau is one of the most exciting prospects to emerge from Mexico for many a year and I must say we have already been very impressed with how he has performed on the left wing. Last season he netted 5 times too, so that versatility is great. We also brought in an exciting English defender in
https://www.virtualmanager.com/players/13708270-cyddi-whittall-sargent
, Cyddi has teamed up well with our other left-sided defender
https://www.virtualmanager.com/players/13750763-fabio-furger
and he and Fabio already have a great understanding.

GC: How disappointed were you to lose 2 of your best youth players recently when they turned 24 and moved up to the senior team?
RB: It was certainly a big blow for the youth team when we lost https://www.virtualmanager.com/players/13633990-jochen-blitz and
https://www.virtualmanager.com/players/13634444-soon-chun-yang
. Jochen and Sooni had led us to our first success in the Portugal Youth Cup but then I suppose we got lucky because we had an extra season with them in the youth team when 23 year olds were permitted to play for YTs, as should always have been the case anyway. Certainly losing them a few seasons back was a big loss, but that last season we still went on to win the Youth Cup for a second time without them was just brilliant for the club and its fans and a really great testament to the lads we have here. The Icelandic lad https://www.virtualmanager.com/players/13657168-kristjan-torrirsson has stepped up to the plate and filled Sooni’s shoes whilst at the back our keeper https://www.virtualmanager.com/players/13693996-istvan-berzevicky has been rock solid, the best Hungarian player I have had at the club for sure.

GC: So Rolf, 2 Youth Cup wins, and one runners-up finish in 4 seasons, that’s pretty amazing success. Do you fear though that your focus on the youth team is perhaps distracting you from the senior team? You were relegated to the second tier a few seasons back and it’s 11 seasons since you made the top 3 of the top tier here in Portugal.
RB: Well Georgia, VM is very competitive in the top leagues and getting a top 3 position is certainly very hard. We have seen more success of course in the senior cup, winning it 6 seasons ago and finishing runners up a few seasons before, Newcastle U FC has always been a good cup team. I think we will be in good shape to compete at the upper half of the top tier in a few seasons’ time as we have some great younger players just about breaking into the first 11 now. I’m especially impressed with our midfielders where I think we are very strong, and I know the fans are also excited about Edvard https://www.virtualmanager.com/players/13417020-edvard-diepold Lambros https://www.virtualmanager.com/players/13452919-lambros-makarezos and Reinhard
https://www.virtualmanager.com/players/13571783-reinhard-antaloz

GC: Your Director David “two chins” Maguire has been a bit quiet about this takeover that everyone is talking about. Have you anything you can say about it?
RB: David, unlike a certain other chairman, has been brilliant for Newcastle U FC and long may he stay here. I don’t know much about the takeover to be honest, and I have read a lot of rubbish and hypocritical nonsense in the newspapers about it. In David we have a quality chairman and I am very happy to be at this tremendous club with its incredible fans.

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