Steve Clarke praises Newcastle United prodigy as Magpies duo face key international decision

Scotland manager Steve Clarke has once again expressed his admiration for Newcastle’s midfield prospect Elliot Anderson as the youngster faces a huge dilemma over his international future.

Anderson has been a member of Newcastle’s academy since the age of eight and he was handed his first team debut during an FA Cup defeat to Arsenal in 2021. 

A successful loan spell at Bristol Rovers followed during the second half of the 2021/22 season and his performances earned him credit from former Magpie Joey Barton who compared his playing style to Diego Maradona.

Anderson was trusted with further first team exposure during Eddie Howe’s first full season in charge and he made a total of 22 Premier League appearances last season, with the majority of those coming from the substitutes bench.

The 20-year-old has long been dubbed as a future star and the Whitley Bay-born midfielder has been involved in the international set ups of both England and Scotland’s academy squads.

Anderson qualified for Scotland through his grandmother and was a youth international for the U16, U17 and U18 teams. He changed his allegiance over to England for one single U19 call up in 2021, before converting back to Scotland for one U21 call up in 2022.

Doubts over his international status seemed to be settled earlier this month, when he was called up for Scotland’s international games against Cyprus and England.

But the midfielder was forced to withdraw from the squad due to injury, prompting interest from England manager Gareth Southgate who said: “We liked him and we do like him, we think he’s a player that’s doing really well."

Southgate admitted he is unsure on the players position at this moment in time but added that he is someone that is being monitored by the FA’s technical director John McDermott.

Scotland manager Steve Clarke has also spoken of his admiration for the player. He said: “We like the player as well so Elliot will still have that choice to make. When I come out of this camp I will look at what we have done, what we have had, what’s occurred over this camp, we will do a debrief on it and then we will shape what we do from there.”

The former Newcastle assistant manager is also monitoring the situation of fellow Magpies midfielder Harvey Barnes. Barnes represented England on one occasion in 2020 but he is now considering switching allegiances according to reports.

Clarke commented: “We want the best players we can possibly get. If they are eligible for Scotland and they have a chance to play for us and they can improve the squad that I’ve got – which is not an easy thing to do.

“And I get all the story round it, because we are playing England you want to speak about Elliot, you want to speak about Harvey. I quite like speaking about the boys I have got because they have put us in a really good position and they deserve a lot of credit for that.”