There was once a time, not so long ago, when Gael Bigirimana was called Baby Tiote by Newcastle fans: a mark of respect but also of expectation. Fast forward less than two years and the former Coventry man, whose rise from out of nowhere was meteoric in comparative terms, has just been loaned to Yeovil. The move has been met with frustration - mostly because of the player's lack of progress - and lamentation that the club haven't done more to help him progress. Others meanwhile were baffled at the very idea that getting rid of him - considering his lack of impact on the first team - was anything but a bad idea, and letting him get first team football was the right approach. But the problem at Newcastle is that the loan system is fundamentally broken: players don't go out to develop, they go out to get them away from the first-team, and way from the manager's concerns. Out of sight, out of mind. If they do well, he hears about it, but if he doesn't hear about them, he casts them off - as has happened with Shane Ferguson. As endorsements go, choosing Yeovil as Bigirimana's destination isn't a great one. The side currently sit in 23rd position in the table, and while they undoubtedly need players of his potential, he doesn't really need this opportunity at this stage of his career. He shouldn't ever have been allowed to go anywhere other than Championship or above (including abroad), and it all smacks of the kind of thoughtless shifting on that will stunt his development, if there is to be any. Consider Mehdi Abeid's situation: he was sent out on loan to St Johnstone, which did very little for him. He played 12 times, and got some ringing endorsements, but they can only ever be so loud when they come from Scotland. But then, when given a chance to go on loan to a higher level club, in Panathinaikos, he flourished and his development leapt forward. The competitive nature of the football and the higher level coaches filled the hole in his development that Newcastle's inability to give him first team attention (not just playing time but actual coaching with the first team) pushed him down the road to the extent that he is now a first teamer. Newcastle need to seriously re-evaluate where they're sending their fringe players if they want to get something out of them, because otherwise they might as well just give up on them now.
