Newcastle: Ryan Taylor WILL Be Back In First Team As Soon As He's Fit

There's news today that defender/midfielder Ryan Taylor might make a surprising appearance against Leicester City on Saturday for Newcastle - albeit as a substitute. The set-piece specialist (something Newcastle have missed for a considerable length of time now) has come through his reserve team appearances without any negative reaction, and though it's been two years since he badly injured himself against Atromitos, it looks like he might be ready to integrate back into the first-team sooner rather than later. Inevitably, rushing him back from injury is the worst idea possible - especially since the injury recurred in a bad way in April 2013 just as he was about to break through again - but it appears that the bows he made against Carlisle and Burnley in behind-closed-doors games have shown he's heading back to match fitness. It's clearly enough to have Pardew raving about him again, but put away your Pardew bingo cards for now as there's no mention yet of him being like a new signing:

€œEverybody is delighted to see Ryan back on his feet again. He€™s worked so hard to get back in contention. €œIt would no surprise if the bench and the fans rose as one to applaud when he gets back on to the first team stage again. He€™s a cracking lad and he will deserve such an ovation.€

It's hardly a surprise to see Pardew waxing lyrical about the returning Scouser: he is exactly his type of player - full of running, capable of covering numerous positions, and crucially who has "experience", that key characteristic the manager has been calling for in the past few weeks. It is clear that without the likes of Shola Ameobi - apparently "good in the changing room" (better than he was on the pitch presumably) - Pardew is without the senior figures he craves behind the scene, and it feels inevitable that Taylor will be pushed back into the first-team as soon as humanly possible. Where would he play? It doesn't really matter. After all, this is the same manager who has been persisting with the same system all season despite the fact that the key player signed for that system - Siem De Jong - has been out injured. He's not scared of forcing jigsaw pieces in to a system. It's no criticism of Taylor though: he is a useful squad player, and particularly for set pieces at the minute, but you really have to ask whether he is still a Premier League player. Is he the kind of player to deliver on the promise of "exciting times ahead"? The simple answer is no - even if he is brought on in as a midfielder to play Pardew's quarter back and set-piece taker (assuming the manager doesn't put him at the head of the growing queue of left-backs), the model for free-kick taking would have to dramatically change. No matter how good the delivery, hitting it towards Mike Williamson is the cowardly answer, rather than going direct for a striker or attacking midfielder. And you just can't see Pardew abandoning that system when he's already spoken in the not too distant past that he wants his centre-halves to pop up with 8-10 goals per season. But then that doesn't matter: because Pardew sees Taylor as one of the pillars of Newcastle United as a club - look at the language he uses to praise him - the returning Scouser will be back in the first team as soon as it can be justified.