When people talk about FA Youth Cup winning sides they seems to imagine teams brimming with potential Premier League stars. Reality, however, rarely works out that way. In most cases clubs count themselves lucky if one or two manage to establish themselves in the top flight with the rest either settling lower down the league scale or else dropping out of professional football altogether.


Liverpool's youth cup winning side of 1996 cerainly followed that pattern. Whereas Jamie carragher and Michael Owen went on to have fine careers and David Thompson did reasonably well till injury curtailed his, the rest of the side disappeared out of sight.

Even so, some fared better then others and managed to enjoy a good career. Jon Newby falls in this category even though it probably hasn't paned out as he might have expected.

Indeed, there was a time when Newby might have reasonably expected a real shot at making it work at Liverpool. A good player at reserves team level, Gerard Houllier had a real look at him and for a time he was a permanent fixture in the first team squad.

Yet the breakthrough never came and eventually he went out on a series of loan deals that took him to Carlisle, Crew, Sheffield United and finally Bury. Here he did well enough - four goals in nine games - to start generating some interest, certainly enough for Liverpool to expect to get a fee for him.

Surprisingly, however, Liverpool opted not to do so and instead allowed Newby to move for free to the club where he had settled in so well.

It was a fortunate choice for Newby, but even more so for Bury, a club in apparent permanent financial trouble. Indeed not only did the striker meet the essential criteria of being cheap but there was the added bonus of him being actually quite good.

His combination of speed, good eye for goal and decent skill made him a good both as a striker and even as a winger.

So good, infact that he started to attract the attention of bigger clubs. Which was good for Bury who saw it as an opportunity to make a bit of money.

Sadly, Newby saw it that way too and opted to see out his contract and move on a Bosman.
This led him to ambitious Huddersfield which was seen as being his big opportunity.


Unfortunately, it didn't turn out to be that way as he never really made his mark. Eventually it was back to Bury for him but things never were back to how they were before. Newby lasted almost two years there before starting off on a series of moves in the lower scale of the league from Wrexham to Southport and then to Morecambe.

Here he did well enough, even scoring his first professional hat-trick, to hint that he was recovering his best form. That much was underlined by the fact that he ended the season as the club's joint top scorer but boss Sammy McIlroy saw it differently and opted to let Newby leave on a free.

Despite interest from a number of clubs, Newby opted to try his luck north of the border with Greenock Morton, where he scored on his debut in a friendly. Yet that was as good as it got and within four months he was packing once again, this time to join Burton Albion on loan in the hope that he does well enough to earn an extended deal.

Such a journeyman existence, therefore, is the possible destiny of an FA Youth Cup winner. All considered Newby hasn't had a bad career and he can rest assured of a good reception every time he goes to Gigg Lane yet it is a far cry from the riches and glamour that many assume will fall into the laps of any decently talented football player.