Kevin Zefi

Also, given the choice of:

(i) playing first-team adult football for Rovers 

versus 

(ii) Academy football with and against players the majority of whom will never make a senior professional appearance at Serie A or B, I think Rovers was the better option. 

Only a tiny proportion, like less than 1%, of Inter Academy / Primavera players go on to play in Serie A, never mind for Inter proper.  

I remember looking at the numbers when Ryan Nolan was there (Bastoni one of the last if not the last to do it), which were similar in terms of breakthroughs to Bayern where Johansson was. Sound like great clubs because of the big name, but terrible record in bringing players through. 

At least at Newcastle he'll have a shot at PL2/U23 hopefully.

That would be the suspicion all right, getting out ahead of the bad news.  It was a real hail mary sending him to Inter, but maybe looked good for someone else.

Ferizaj isn't getting many minutes at Rovers, so who's to say that Zefi would had he stayed.

That 1% can't be true. 

Academy/Primavera graduates since 2010:

Cristiano Biraghi (30) - Fiorentina

Mame Thiam (30) - Kayserispor

Alfred Duncan (30) - Fiorentina

George Pușcaș (27) - Genoa

Ionuț Radu (26) - Inter Milan

Andreaw Gravillon (25) - Reims 

Federico Dimarco (25) - Inter Milan

Michele Di Gregorio (25) - Monza

Andrea Pinamonti (24) - Sassuolo

Nicolò Zaniolo (24) - Galatasaray

Zinho Vanheusden (23) -Inter Milan

Salvatore Esposito (22) - Spezia

Martín Satriano (22) - Inter Milan

Eddie Salcedo (21) - Inter Milan

Sebastiano Esposito (21) - Inter Milan

Lorenzo Priola (21) - Salernitana

Cesare Casadei (20) - Chelsea

Franco Carboni  (20) - Inter Milan

Wilfred Gnonto (19) - Leeds United

Valentín Carboni (18) - Inter Milan

Bastoni was bought from Atalanta after a loan at Parma where he impressed.

The reality of football at the very top is that it's difficult to churn out world class player regularly. United, Chelsea, Barcelona, Real Madrid, etc. They all produce a lot of footballers for the overall football pyramid in their countries. The Football League is full of former United and Chelsea graduates. A Paul Scholes, John Terry, Lionel Messi or Raúl are not normal players. They come along every 20-30 years. If even.

They are the elite leagues of European football.

Realistically Newcastle are likely to take on a similar transfer trajectory to Man City where they will take multiple approaches. They will compete for World Class talent who will improve their starting XI and also separately for top rated youngsters who they will seek to loan out and make a profit on ultimately. Zefi has about a 200/1 chance of breaking into the first team and become a regular at Newcastle should he land there. But he could much more likely become a top pro elsewhere through a similar process to Bazunu, he could be farmed out to L1 or a similar level initially and then take it from there 

I think going to Inter Milan or AC Milan is no different than going to a big 6 club or a Newcastle. Incredibly hard to breakthrough. 

One thing I will say the recent trend of certain English clubs breaking the mould in a money infested League by once again using intensive scouting,data analytics etc to source mainly young talent has been a monumental benefit to us as a nation. Obviously each club uses different methods but the same benefit.

Brighton,Burnley,,Norwich and Southampton are 4 I can think of that have been very good to young Irish players and their development. Not to mention plenty EFL clubs too. 

Palace are another “Prem” club that seem to be handling a few young Irish lads developments to a tee.