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Just three summers ago Alan Pardew had a simple message for local lad Paul Dummett after he’d worked his way from the club’s Under-9s to the first team squad.

Back then, with Dummett’s contract coming to an end, Pardew told him: “You’re not good enough to get in my team.”

But having been at Newcastle from the age of eight and having graduated from the club’s Academy to the brink of the first team Dummett refused to give up.

At the Academy’s gym, United have pictures of a host of players that have made the first team in recent years such as Andy Carroll, Dummett, Shane Ferguson, Kazenga LuaLua, Jak Alnwick, Sammy Ameobi and Haris Vuckic.

There’s also a painting of an empty shirt with: “Who’s next?” emblazoned across the back.

With plenty of room on the walls for more additions, Rafa Benitez has ordered a shake-up to ensure many more follow in the years to come.

This week Benitez hosted the inaugural Newcastle United Foundation 1892 Cup with youngsters at the event meeting living proof, in Dummett, that you can rise through the ranks if you work hard enough.

Dummett admitted he’d had to earn his right to pull on a black and white shirt. Speaking 75 appearances after being told his career was as good as over with the Magpies, Dummett told the Chronicle: “Under Alan Pardew I was told I wouldn’t play for Newcastle United or the Premier League.

“When he told me I replied that I wanted to prove him wrong. And he said: ‘That’s the attitude I like to hear’.

“With me I have that attitude that I don’t give up. Two or three years ago I thought I’d never play in the first team.

“I went on loan to St Mirren and Gateshead and knew I would have to come back and prove the manager wrong, which I did.

“Eventually, Alan gave me the chance to play for Newcastle. I am thankful to him even though he said I wouldn’t be good enough.

“Maybe it was his way of encouraging me and go on and make a player of myself. Thankfully he gave me the chance and I am here now.”

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Benitez has ordered Newcastle’s Academy to step things up on the grassroots scene around Newcastle and wants the club to take advantage of what many see as a hotbed of football.

Dummett knows there is more talent out there and said: “I was at the Academy from the age of eight, when you are younger you play all the time, at school, in the streets, everywhere.

“The most important thing is that they learn as they grow up. When you are eight you watch Newcastle on TV and think about players like Alan Shearer and you want to be like them.

“There’s players at the club now who the players want to be. But you don’t think about it too much.

“Then you get to a certain age like at high school and you think: ‘Maybe I’ve got a chance’.

“When you’re at school the teachers tell you it probably won’t happen because not many make it.

“That’s what I was told: ‘It won’t happen, only one in million will make it.’

“But if you work hard, practice, make sacrifices and you are dedicated, you always have a good chance.”

And Dummett has some simple advice to those who want to play for Newcastle - don’t let anybody make you give up on your dreams.

The Kenton lad said: “Maybe when you’re 13 or 14 it starts to get that little bit more serious.

“When I got to 16 I thought I might get released, the same again at the end of the Under-18s. But you never know what will happen.

“You are always hanging to that bit of hope and thinking and dreaming of what the future holds.

“You just never give up, I always just tried as hard as I could.”