After Gael Bigirimana was linked with a loan move to Yeovil Town - which the League One side apparently ruled out in the end - Alan Pardew has come out in the press to talk up the value of loans, since the club have enjoyed some success from them. Such a blanket statement is wrong however, as Newcastle have only profited from the right loans, and simply sending out youth talents anywhere and hoping they come good is not the right move. Yes, Newcastle profited from loan moves for Mehdi Abeid, Paul Dummett and Sammy Ameobi (to a lesser extent), and in the past have seen a good developmental move for Steven Taylor, but it is the circumstances of those loans that matter as much as the destination. Abeid went to Panathinaikos and profited from top level European training, Dummett won a Scottish cup (a confidence boost that undoubtedly helped him) and Sammy Ameobi stayed local and Boro's coaching set-up is still impressive. And as for Steven Taylor, he worked under Tony Adams at Wycombe Wanderers - so the lower league level wasn't as much of an issue. But then you consider other loans Newcastle have commissioned: Andy Carroll to Preston (which almost ended his career thanks to controversy), Adam Campbell to Carlisle (a waste of time) and Haris Vuckic to Rotherham (pointless) and you can see the errors. And then of course there's Shane Ferguson, a player who remains up for loan, and who went to Birmingham City for two years and mostly sat on the bench. Not how to develop talent. What really matters is who is looking after the players on loan, and how much first team football they are getting. If the objective is merely to get them off the books for a while, that clearly is not enough - as Manchester United found when they foolishly sent Giuseppe Rossi to St. James' Park. So while Pardew is looking to get loan moves sorted out for Haris Vuckic, Gael Bigirimana and Shane Ferguson before the November deadline passes, and claims that loans can work - he needs to make sure they are sent to the right clubs for their development. It will only be the right move that will allow those players a chance to follow in Mehdi Abeid's footsteps, which is what Pardew so clearly wants:
Hes definitely a gauge for other young players not just at this football club, but other Premier League clubs. Hes shown that going out on loan can help massively. He came back from that loan spell a much better player. We need to thank the club for what they did for him. But it worked both ways because he did very well. Its a system Ive always believed in. Weve got players out on loan at the moment and well continue to do that, because I think it works.
It works yes, but only in the right context, and it's odd that he mentions the players currently out on loan, since three of them are entirely unwanted by the club (Yanga-Mbiwa, Ben Arfa and Marveaux) and Remi Streete has returned to the club. The other two major loans - Jamaal Lascelles and Karl Darlow - are not at Forest so they can develop, but because it was insisted on by the selling club. So it's best not to take those quotes at face value.
