Gael Bigirimana, Haris Vuckic, Mehdi Abeid, Adam Campbell, Shane Ferguson, Remie Streete, Curtis Goode... What do all of these players have in common? Prospects and potential. And unfortunately for Newcastle, despite the investment in the players - whether in terms of transfer fees or in wages, development and training resources - every single one of them is either on the verge of being cast off, or has been all but given up on already. And the signs that there's no faith in the players? They've all been sent out on loan. Ordinarily, players being sent out on loan would indicate some faith from the management: a loan after all gives the club the opportunity to blood the player and give them competitive experience without having to throw them into the deep end at their parent club. It is especially effective to send younger players out to slightly lower level sides - even sometimes in the same league - in order that they get a taxing first team experience and will come back match fit and matured and ready to make the transition to the first team. At Chelsea and Man Utd players are sent out to feeder clubs or other Premier League teams to aid their development, and then usually come back to play in the first team, or are sold on when it becomes clear that they perhaps aren't of the right level. That leads to a high level of turnover, but it is the best way to bring young talent through when the club is rich and alternatives like spending £20m on an established player aren't sniffed at. At smaller clubs, players are sent on loan to lower league teams for a few years and then introduced to the first team: it's not rocket science. At Newcastle though, young, supposedly gifted players are sent out on loan to lower level teams where they win individual accolades, like Scottish cups or promotions, or bag a hatful of key goals, and then return to the club with high expectations. Sometimes they even make it into pre-season squads as the manager pretends he might be about to change things dramatically - which rarely he might (as with the emergence of Rolando Aarons). But the over-riding message for players who are sent out from Newcastle is not "come back stronger" it's that the club aren't really that interested. Instead of creating a culture of development with partner clubs, Alan Pardew sends his youth players - who rarely get even a sniff of first team action unless it's the end of the season, regardless of how well they play in the Reserves (see Ayoze Perez and Adam Armstrong) - away so they're out of sight and out of mind. Highly thought of talents like Conor Newton are sent to Scotland, where they win a cup and are then immediately sold to Rotherham without a chance at Newcastle, and players live James Tavernier are left to rot in the reserves until someone like Wigan rescues them. It's not a matter of development for Pardew and his coaching team - the reason players are sent out on loan is to take them away from the first team. Yes, both agendas seek first team football, but the first has a long-term plan to get the players into the first team. When Pardew is interviewed and criticises his team for being young (while ignoring his own massive failings), you get the picture of a club that has no means to bring young talent on. Which is why most of those players named at the top there won't ever make a big dent in the first team under Pardew unless something terrible happens to the first team squad. That begs the question of why Newcastle are spending a lot of money on a big new swanky training complex, when the attitude at the club is to foster talent into a talent cul-de-sac and then quietly shuffle them away, or bury them in the Reserves like Shane Ferguson. Out of sight, out of mind. That isn't to say all of those players deserve to be in the first team: far from it in fact - but what exactly is the benefit of sending them out on loan constantly when there's no sight of them blossoming into first-teamers? Wouldn't it be more sensible to simply release them? Drastic perhaps, but no less unfortunate for them than having to climb a brick wall to the first team, while weighed down by an inferior coaching set-up that has failed to bring through enough youth players under Mike Ashley, despite that being one of his KEY objectives for self sustaining finances.
