How Ranger has escaped his troubled past at United
NEWCASTLE has proved a footballer's undoing on more than one occasion.
However, for one young player, a move to Tyneside has proved his salvation.
Last week Nile Ranger capped a remarkable nine months at Newcastle United by signing a new three and a half year contract.
The 18-year-old striker, in his own words, was "kicked out" of his last club, Southampton, who themselves had taken Ranger on after he was released from a Young Offenders' Institute after serving 11 weeks for his part in a street robbery.
However, while there may be temptations aplenty in Newcastle, Ranger – who was signed by the departed Dennis Wise – has found his enjoyment on the pitch.
"Coming up here has completely changed my life," Ranger told the Sunday Telegraph in a candid interview.
"I have changed. I realise now what an amazing opportunity this club has given me. I don't even want to think what might have happened to me if I hadn't come to Newcastle. I'm just so grateful for that.
"The change of atmosphere did me loads of good. I went into digs up here and I was away from the old faces, the old problems."
Ranger's manager, fellow Southampton old boy Alan Shearer, scored a hat-trick aged 17, and has indicated he won't be afraid to go with youth, believing in the old adage 'if you're good enough, you're old enough'.
Manchester United's wonderkid Federico Macheda, 17, recently underlined that, scoring in his first two Premier League appearances.
Just over three weeks ago, before his first-team debut against Aston Villa, Macheda struck a hat-trick for Man United's reserves at St James's Park, and now everybody knows his name.
In the home side that night was Ranger, who could prove a Wise legacy of which the club can be proud.
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Friday 10 February 2012
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