Dear Newcastle: Please Don't Mess Up Remie Streete's Loan

A chance to develop, or a chance to be forgotten?

Following on from the news that Alan Pardew had told Remie Streete that he would only ever be fourth or fifth choice centre-back at Newcastle this season, the young defender has extended his loan at Port Vale until January. The 20-year-old has so far played twice for the League One side, and Vale's manager Rob Page seems duly impressed:
"I think Remie has shown what he is all about in the two games he has had. "It's pleasing to tie him down until January. He is a great lad to have around and gets on with his training."
The defender confirmed that it had always been the longer term target to have him stay at Vale until January, which clearly makes more sense for a player whose first team chances are limited despite the lack of available players. Hopefully this means that Streete's development - which will inevitably quicken with first team opportunities, even in League One - will be tracked actively by the Newcastle scouting team. If he is simply being sent there because there's no place for him in the first team squad on Tyneside, that would be a massive mistake. And it would be a massive mistake to consider him out of sight, out of mind, particularly given how highly rated he has been for the past four or five years. Unfortunately injuries have curtailed his progression somewhat, but as a defender he has a long time ahead of him before he reaches his peak, and if Newcastle choose to invest the time in him and allow him to develop into the player it has always been suspected he could be, they could well be hugely rewarded. For now, we have to wait and see how well he does at Port Vale, and perhaps at a couple more loan destinations before we see him competing with the likes of Jamaal Lascelles, Paul Dummett and probably Lubomir Satka for the longer term places at the heart of Newcastle's defence.
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