Newcastle should avoid the loan market.
Posted on May 26th, 2010 | 149 Comments |
Players like Tom Cleverley and Jack Wilshere have been mentioned as possible candidates to make the temporary switch to Tyneside, but is that really the way we should be going?
The thing about them two players is that they both play in a position that is aready equipped to get by in the Premier League, so would we really drop the likes of Kevin Nolan, Danny Guthrie, Joey Barton or Alan Smith in favour of playing a player that will only be with us on a temporary basis? I can’t see it personally, which is why I think the mention of loan deals is being very exaggerated.
This is not to say a loan deal can’t work out, and we only have to look at Danny Simpson to see that operating the loan market shrewdly can pay dividends, and it’s that sort of loan deal that we should be pursuing. Simpson came to Tyneside initially on loan, got his head down, and earned a permanent move here. If we were to take Cleverley or Wilshere on loan, would we be able to do the same thing and buy the player at the end of the deal? Highly unlikely, in the case of both players.
The Simpson loan may have worked out because he was signed to play in a position that we really didn’t have a player who was capable of starting regularly in. Sure we have Ryan Taylor, but at the start of the season we didn’t have Wayne Routledge so the scouser was forced to ply his trade further up the pitch. This allowed Simpson a free run in the team as such, and gave him the chance to initially thrive. That wouldn’t be the case for a loan player who plays in the middle of the park.
We are now upping our level in terms of opposition, and the players we need to recruit will have to be notched up another level too. Wilshere and Cleverley are both highly regarded by their parent clubs Arsenal and Manchester United, so any loan deal would probably incorporate some clause where each player had to play a certain number of games. They won’t be sending their highly prized assets away to sit on someone elses bench will they? So which senior player would get dropped to accomodate them?
It will be hard to get a definitive answer to that in all honesty. Should Nolan, who scored so many vital goals, get the boot? How about Barton, who is now looking like we could actually see him play in a run of games, and showed glimpses of quality as he worked his way back to full fitness at the end of last season, should we drop him? What about Danny Guthrie, who was a creative force for us last season and got better as the games rolled by, should he make way? Or Alan Smith, should the tough tackling midfielder who was instrumental in the early part of last season, face the axe?
Don’t forget we have our very own young star waiting in the wings to make an impact in Haris Vuckic. How would he fit in? Or more importantly, how would he feel if a youngster from another came along and took a position away from him? A position where he has been tipped to shine in for some time now. What sort of message would that send out? Plus it would also go against ‘the plan’ of promoting from within.
I guess the point I am trying to make is, why should we be giving young players from other teams the chance to learn in our team, especially in a position that is already brimming with the experience of Nolan, Smith and Barton whilst being laced with the youth of Guthrie and Vuckic.
If we were to get one of these high profile loan players, then surely it would make sense to get them in positions that are crying out for a player? Like a striker for example? I’m all for working the loan market if it improves our team, but it shouldn’t be at the expense of it. Lets just hope we aren’t singing ‘Only the Loanly,’ or ‘The One and Loanly,’ or any other songs you can pun the word ‘loan’ into come the end of the transfer window.
“The thing about them two players is that they both play in a position that is aready equipped to get by in the Premier League, so would we really drop the likes of Kevin Nolan, Danny Guthrie, Joey Barton or Alan Smith”
Ha, Ha, Ha!!!
Where’s the creativity there? We need at least one creative midfielder. It doesn’t look like we’ll be buying one so it will have to be a loan.