One or two of the most promising youngsters in Newcastle’s academy are often invited to train with Eddie Howe’s first-team squad. This experience is partly a reward and partly an introduction to the tough challenges that come with being an elite football player. Not many young people are invited regularly.
Lewis Miley is a rare exception. The midfielder was just 16 and a few months away from school when he received the call from Howe last year.
Relating to: Lewis Miley puts his name on the biggest stage amid Newcastle’s righteous anger | Jonathan Liew
“The biggest compliment I can give Lewis is that he immediately seemed like part of the group,” Newcastle’s manager said. “It is not a difficult feat for someone so young to technically survive in the first team group. Some of the drills we do are very difficult. Lewis survived these exercises; “This is a huge thing.”
For context, Newcastle’s outstanding England Under-21 winger Anthony Gordon recently admitted that it took several months to understand Howe’s complex tactical instructions correctly and that he “couldn’t always understand” exactly what was happening after his arrival from Everton last January . He was supposed to be doing it.
No wonder Howe was impressed by what he described as Miley’s “brilliant brain” and quickly booked the midfielder, who joined Newcastle’s academy as a seven-year-old, during the first team’s trip to Saudi Arabia to train in warm weather last December.
While Miley was playing a friendly against Al-Hilal in Riyadh, Enzo Fernández was helping turn on the lights for Argentina in Doha. Last winter’s World Cup showcased the then-21-year-old midfielder’s skills as he traveled six hours east across the desert. Fernández, who played a key role in his country’s tournament win, was named the best young player of Qatar 2022 before joining Chelsea from Benfica for £106.8 million the following month.
Fast forward to July, though, in Atlanta, Georgia, where Miley outshone Fernández during a friendly against Chelsea. Howe was clearly right to change his mind when sending the now 17-year-old out on loan to a Football League club last summer, given that something very similar was about to happen last Saturday when Mauricio Pochettino’s side capitulated 4-1 on Tyneside.
When he discussed this decision with his team, there was no disagreement, just jokes about the shared uncertainty about whether the 6-foot-1, stunningly baby-faced prodigy had started shaving. Everyone agreed that Miley was “a kid.”
But just four months ago his chances of getting more playing time this season looked slim. Shortly before the North American trip, Italian Sandro Tonali had arrived from Milan for £55 million and Miley immediately looked to Howe in the midfield equation, with Bruno Guimaraes, Sean Longstaff, Joelinton, Joe Willock and Elliot Anderson in the departmental squad.
Moreover, despite making his first senior competitive start in the Carabao Cup win over Manchester City in September, a player currently operating as a No.8 but expected to convert to No.6 later contracted glandular fever and did not play again until November.
By then Tonali had been suspended for 10 months for breaches of betting regulations, Anderson, Willock and Longstaff were injured and Miley remained unimpressed in the spotlight.
A star was born as his cleverly disguised, beautifully weighted pass created Alexander Isak’s first goal against Chelsea. Fernández utterly failed to enjoy being reacquainted with a midfielder who, in Howe’s words, “doesn’t look 17, doesn’t act like 17, and doesn’t play 17.”
Paris Saint-Germain players are unlikely to disagree after Tuesday’s stunning performance in the 1-1 draw at the Parc des Princes in which Miley became the third-youngest Englishman to start a Champions League match after Jude Bellingham and Phil Foden.
It was thrilling to see Miley play with the fearless freedom of a child while displaying the mind of a 30-year-old, and Howe’s pride was reinforced by the knowledge that such extraordinary talent is leavened with a healthy humility and rare emotional maturity.
Miley grew up as one of four brothers from the small former colliery County Durham hill town of Stanley, described by her manager as “extraordinarily nice, extremely sensitive”. Newcastle also have older and younger siblings on their books; Jamie under 21 and Mason under 18.
It is perhaps significant that, as a student at Tanfield School, Lewis spent many hours on his grade’s local championship-winning futsal team to develop his close control and first touch. Those qualities should shine through if, as expected, he makes his sixth appearance of the season at home against Manchester United on Saturday night.
“Lewis will be the next referee but he got a taste of top-flight football early on and has done things his own way,” Howe said on Friday. “For someone so young, he has a good outlook on life and sport. He is very calm, very polite, very respectful. But he is also keen to show his qualities.”