Watford return for Jose?
Posted on February 22nd, 2010 | 142 Comments |
Chris Hughton brought in Chelsea’s young left-back, Van Aanholt, 19, who had a previous loan spell at Coventry City to cover the position for a month. The young Dutchman has done well when called upon and has turned in some decent performances considering the shoes he’s been filling in the position.
Hughton will have the option to extend Van Aanholt’s loan from an initial one month period to until the end of the season. Personally, I’d like to see him given the opportunity here as he won’t feature for Chelsea (injuries permitting) and there’s always the danger of Enrique falling to injury again.
Enrique’s last game for Newcastle was the 2-0 win over Crystal Palace, now nearly over a month ago. Hughton has the decision to instantly bring Jose back for his guaranteed experience, or stick with Van Aanholt who hasn’t really put a foot wrong. However, seeing as Hughton only rates Enrique as “hopeful” for Watford, it would be assumed that in keeping with his usual ‘safe approach’, the manager will stick with Van Aanholt.
Speaking to the officiall website, Hughton simply had this to say –
“We’re hopeful that Jose could be ok to return and we’ll see how he gets on this week,”.
The former Valencia player has had a steady rise to ‘fan favourite’ in his time at Newcastle, which has been helped by an unusual lack of injuries (not in keeping with the trend set by former players, thankfully). His ability to link up with Argentinian winger Gutierrez on the left hand side with similar powerful, pace-filled runs down the flank has been an exciting sight at St. James’ and provided an important attacking outlet – though not compromising his defensive duties. So let us hope that in the near future we can see Enrique back in action for the Magpies.
Hughton also added that Newcastle captain Nicky Butt, could feature at some point next Saturday, as he returns from a thigh injury. Meanwhile, Peter Lovenkrands, a goal scorer in the 3-0 win over Preston, is waiting to have his leg strain assessed and will know on Monday whether he will be fit to face Watford.
Wouldn’t want him to rush back. Would rather he made a sub appearance rather than coming back and getting knacked again.
Hamstrings are dodgy things to recover from.