The rise of Eddie Howe’s Newcastle United has coincided with vast improvements to the youth academy. This bears testament to the wall-to-wall progress since the PIF takeover.
Sean and Matty Longstaff had emerged before the transformational period, but these homegrown stars stand as outliers from a barren era. Newcastle’s youth scene very much had a semblance of an arid desert, with several exciting prospects failing to live up to the hype.
One such talent is named Rolando Aarons – remember him? The fleet-footed winger positively crackled with electricity as he boomed into senior action, but now he’s a distant memory, having endured a bitter plummet from short-lived grace.
Rolando Aarons' prodigious beginning
Way back when, former Magpies manager Rafa Benitez had called for investment, displeased with the lack of inspiration and investment within the Tyneside formative fold.
Emerging stars were few and far between. Before the Longstaffs, Adam Armstrong had swam up from the youth ranks but only completed 21 appearances and failed to score before moving away.
Armstrong is a Premier League player today, but Aarons has endured a more luckless career since, falling by the wayside after his prodigious beginning.
And it really was quite the beginning. Across the 2014/15 campaign, Aarons emphatically announced himself to the major stage, posting two goals and an assist across just six matches – including a goal and assist apiece off the bench against Crystal Palace in the Premier League.
He scored in an incredible victory over Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium in the League Cup, but an excellent emergence was blighted by injuries that limited him to a bit-part role. Still, the precocity was clear and the Magpies faithful were ecstatic, for they had unearthed the brightest of gems.
The Daily Mail’s Craig Hope even said that he was ‘strikingly similar in build and size’ to Raheem Sterling, who is now one of the most decorated Englishmen of his generation.
Peter Beardsley, Newcastle’s development manager at the time, said: “He’s like a flying left winger with good ability – really good ability. He’s one that we’ve got high hopes for in the first team. He’s probably the main one. We expect him to do good things.”
Sterling, now playing for Arsenal, has scored 123 goals in the Premier League and has even been praised in the past as “an extraordinary player” by Pep Guardiola, instrumental in winning hordes of domestic silverware during the earlier iteration of the Manchester City juggernaut.
Aarons’s career has been the opposite. It’s very much a case of ‘what if?’
Rolando Aarons' market value in 2024/25
Aarons completed a string of loan spells across various levels before his Newcastle contract concluded in 2021 and he moved away in search of pastures new.
Now 28 years old, the two-cap Jamaica international has wandered across Europe and England’s pyramidal divisions without finding more than a tincture of the success that was suggested in those maiden days.
The versatile winger concluded his time at St. James’ Park with four goals and three assists across 27 matches for the senior side. Sadly, despite last featuring in the 2017/18 campaign, he has netted just five goals since.
Newcastle United
2014/15 – 2020/21
27
4
3
NK Celje
2023/24 -2024/25
22
1
3
Slovan Liberec
2018/19
13
0
0
Wycombe Wanderers
2019/20
13
2
0
Motherwell
2019/20
11
2
0
Hellas Verona
2017/18
11
0
0
Sheffield Wednesday
2018/19
10
1
1
According to Football Transfers’ player valuation model, Aarons is now worth less than £100k, which truly paints the picture of how far he has fallen. Upon his breakthrough, the likes of Arsenal were keen on making a move after Aarons put a hold on contract talks with the Toon some nine years ago.
What could have been. Once considered to be cut from the same cloth as the renowned Sterling, Aarons faded into the abyss, but Newcastle fans will always carry fond memories of a briefly flickering flame at the core of a dark time.
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