What does the future hold for Newcastle’s recently returned loanees?

With pre-season now underway and a victory already under NUFC’s belt, a few eyebrows were raised when some forgotten men got some minutes on the pitch against Hearts after returning from loan spells last year. So who may have a chance of forcing their way back into Rafa’s plans next season?

Siem De Jong

De Jong is perhaps the most likely to still claim a future at the club. The Dutchman arrived with a good pedigree after captaining Ajax to titles back in Holland and it was hoped he would be the number 10 we had lacked in recent years. However, despite an impressive initial pre-season, injury problems soon surfaced and his NUFC career is so far better symbolised by his time on the treatment table than on the pitch.

He was shipped out to PSV last year to regain some confidence and with injuries again halting his progress initially, he did manage a strong end to the season and scored 4 goals in the final few months of the season. Now 28, De Jong is firmly in the last chance saloon in English football but Rafa does see something in him; he was trusted with a starting role during our ill-fated run in when he took over and narrowly avoided keeping us up in the 15/16 season.

De Jong started the Hearts game and laid on a great assist for Gayle’s opener. Number 10 is also a problem position for United; Perez and Diame failed to claim this as their own last season. I am pretty sure Bentiez will want a number 10 brought in this summer but it may be that Siem still has a part to play. Diame and Perez may be used as centre midfield and centre forward squad depth respectively with De Jong providing the competition as a number 10. He clearly has talent and is worth having in the squad; as long as we don’t rely on him being fit. Any contribution from him next year would be a real bonus.

Tim Krul

It seems to have went sour for Tim at Newcastle after being a fantastic servant to the club over the years. Krul was arguably one of the best goalkeepers in the Premier League three or four years ago but as the team struggled, so did his form. His development had stalled and perhaps mentally he was going a bit stale, having only really played for Newcastle. He certainly had options to leave for bigger clubs at his peak and clearly holds an affinity with the city of Newcastle.

An ACL injury has further pushed him back and meant he was loaned out to AZ Alkmaar last year, where by all accounts, he was less than impressive. Rafa wants a new goalkeeper this summer and with us already having Darlow, Elliott and Woodman, it looks like Tim is destined for the exit door. Also being left out the squad for pre-season appears to suggest a move could be sorted sooner rather than later.

Henri Saivet

One player who could come back into the fold is slightly more left of field. Saivet was sent on loan to St Etienne last year after failing to make any sort of impact at Newcastle after arriving in January 2016. He has not been given many chances to play to be fair but by all accounts doesn’t appear to be the powerful midfield anchor we had hoped for. That being said, Rafa brought him on during his quietly impressive cameo against Hearts, so he must see something in him or feel he wants to see more of him before totally removing him from his plans.

Others

In terms of other players who had loan spells last season, similar moves will likely be arranged or they will be moved on permanently. Adam Armstrong has already moved to Bolton until the New Year to continue his development in the Championship and similar deals may be negotiated by the end of the window for Jamie Sterry and Ivan Toney, who would both benefit hugely from a year in the second tier.

That only really leaves Emmanuel Riviere who thankfully looks to have no future at the club; it now appears to be a pure damage limitation job to get off the wage bill, never mind re-coup any of the £6m fee we paid for him.

Which, if any, of the returning loan players would you like to be given a chance?

About Simon Riddlesden

Lifelong Newcastle United fan and East Stand season ticket holder. Observations from a supporter who has followed NUFC during Champions League participation and through relegation, taking me from Milan to Scunthorpe.

143 thoughts on “What does the future hold for Newcastle’s recently returned loanees?

  1. ERIC all about getting match fit mate that’s all,by the way I prefer Betty’s crisps which you cannot get now

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  2. Sharpy17: Yeah mate, but it’ll be us who’s laughing loudest when we get Clucas for £4m screw you loosers

    I would like to think so,one ginger nut for another lol

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  3. Icedog: I would like to think so,one ginger nut for another lol

    Ice – to be fair £4m is a decent buy for Clucas like. He isn’t the top signing we’d be hoping for, but I reckon he’d do a decent job.
    Hell if Jack Cork went for £10m, why not.

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  4. Icedog:
    ERIC all about getting match fit mate that’s all,by the way I prefer Betty’s crisps which you cannot get now

    Nah Man. Where would you like to go, Bradford and Preston? Play in Paris and Milan? Visit Paris and Milan instead of Preston? Test yourself against good players, or hoofers?

    It is not all about fitness. In this day and age it is about marketing, branding, getting your name out there. We will hardly be doing that in Preston and Bradford.

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  5. Strange though. How did Fatty build up the Sports Direct brand and now not really know what he is doing regarding marketing NUFC?

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  6. Just reading an article on Holtby who we’ve also been linked with. Can’t imagine he’d cost too much, but he’s on 67k a week at Hamburg now, so don’t see us meeting or bettering that wage so he’s another off the list I reckon.

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  7. Man U and Madrid in front of 66,000 in San Francisco.

    Spurs/Roma, Man City/Barca next week.

    I am not saying we are on the same level as these teams but are we on the level of Preston, Bradford and Hearts? I understand what Ice is saying, even though I disagree with him.

    I don’t understand why I am the only one that is saying the pre-season is a bit of a joke. Do you think Spurs would be better prepared for the first game against us by playing Roma or Preston, or Hellas Verona?

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  8. AND, and, and…

    Real Madrid have played the full first half with 8 of the players that started the Champions League final. The best team in the world is taking this pre-season stuff seriously even if we are not.

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  9. ERIC I know what you are saying about making money pre-season,on the other side a lot of sides taking these long trips have found it takes a lot out of players and had a stinking start to season and took quite a few games to get back on track,marketing has already been done with those trips to the Far East hence our new sponsor,Rafa is nee mug

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  10. Ice: it is not a long trip to the US. 7-9 hours to the East Coast and Midwest. They don’t have to go to Australia. I have done the US/UK trip probably 70 or 80 times (seriously, I have lived here 27 years and my ex-wife owns a European Travel Company so I was back and forth a lot). You get over the jetlag in a day on such a short trip as I am sure you know.

    Plus they would be in First Class taking selfies to put up on Instagram.

    Preston or Madrid, or Miami? I will let you decide 🙂

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  11. Also, Icedog. I am not really saying it is all about money and branding (there’s that term again), it is about playing better teams and letting the fans have a day out that isn’t Preston or Bradford.

    I know you get what I am saying. Not trying to cause a fight.

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  12. The London Council will not let Sullivan and Gold sell West Ham for 5 years without penalties. Now tell me, why would they do that if they didn’t know they were giving the Pornsters a sweetheart deal?

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  13. Eric Sykes:
    The London Council will not let Sullivan and Gold sell West Ham for 5 years without penalties. Now tell me, why would they do that if they didn’t know they were giving the Pornsters a sweetheart deal?

    Exactly

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  14. Another weekend gone with no transfer movement except a weak link with a nobody Hull player. FFS!!!

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  15. Georgio – it looks very likely our next 2 signings are Clucas for £4m and Rolan at £5m – probable replacements/upgrades to Saviet and Rivière – but I reckon we have greater needs like.

    Marseille supposed to be in for Dembele (Celtic) for £20m – I’d take him like.

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  16. georgio:
    Another weekend gone with no transfer movement except a weak link with a nobody Hull player. FFS!!!

    cannot say i know much about the Hull player but last season the England manager said he liked the look of him for future,mind in saying that our ginger col-heed was picked for a game for England so it doest say much does it

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  17. Eric Sykes:
    Also, Icedog. I am not really saying it is all about money and branding (there’s that term again), it is about playing better teams and letting the fans have a day out that isn’t Preston or Bradford.

    I know you get what I am saying. Not trying to cause a fight.

    i know your not mate,nowt like banter and each others views

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  18. Eric has a valid point, we should be testing ourselves against the best opposition possible pre season. To be fair we don’t ever do a quality pre season under jabba.

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  19. was really hoping we’d get at least one marquee signing in to boost our PL chances, ah well, it is what it is and still might happen.

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  20. Kimtoon:
    was really hoping we’d get at least one marquee signing in to boost our PL chances, ah well, it is what it is and still might happen.

    Kim – I guess it’s still part of the building process. It might happen, but there again, those marquee signings may want to wait and see if we are going to compete or if we are fighting for survival again.
    I think despite Ashley saying the money is there, the club is still being very cautious – and I get that, and I’m sure Rafa gets that too. But we have to be careful not to be overly cautious.
    I could see a decent forward coming in though – I don’t know why, but I see it being Slimani.

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  21. We’re certainly on a budget and a small one at that. But it’s also pertinent to mention that Rafa is still suffering from the squad negligence from the last few years. He’s struggling to off load the likes of Saviet, Mitro and Rivière to mention a few.

    The next signings will be the hardest to do and I don’t think I’m too confident we will succeed.

    All in all, Rafa is going to have to prove how good a coach he is if he’s to keep us up. Thankfully I think Rafa gives us at least 12 points.

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  22. You would think Rafa being the gaffer would tempt a player more towards us than other teams but I guess it comes down to wages and what fee wego to. I don’t see us going over £12m for one player I really don’t.

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  23. We have about 10 players we need to get rid of and absolutely nobody is going to buy them.
    We’ll be lucky to find takers by giving half of them away.
    Reading between Rafa’s comments this seems to be the bottle neck that’s holding things up.
    His hands are tied by previous managers and that useless old fecker Carr. Having said that he bought Lazaar, Hanley, Gamez, Sels and Diame. Roaring successes all of them.

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  24. Still dreaming though . . . Deportivo have offered Lucas Perez a 10 year deal. Considering he’s 28 that’s some deal. Maybe we should offer him 12! Good player who would be ideal for us and not too expensive. £15m maybe.
    Then there’s Wilshere. Really good player when fit. However almost all of his injuries have been bones. Fractures, breaks, fissures. Very strange.

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  25. georgio:
    Still dreaming though . . . Deportivo have offered Lucas Perez a 10 year deal. Considering he’s 28 that’s some deal. Maybe we should offer him 12! Good player who would be ideal for us and not too expensive. £15m maybe.
    Then there’s Wilshere. Really good player when fit. However almost all of his injuries have been bones. Fractures, breaks, fissures. Very strange.

    the blokes a **** and a sick note,no thanks

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  26. I’m bored now with all these links to players that will never ever come… would love to get Carvalho and Bas Dost. Dreaming again…

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  27. Wouldn’t touch Wilshire with a barge pole, made of glass that one and full of himself they reckon.

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  28. 11:44 SSN

    HERNANDEZ ON HIS WAY

    Javier Hernandez is flying to London today to have his medical and complete his move to West Ham. The deal is worth £13m and he will become the highest paid player in the club’s history, with his salary believed to be about £140,000 per week.

    How can they afford those wages and what will the other players feel about it I wonder

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  29. Kimtoon:
    11:44 SSN

    HERNANDEZ ON HIS WAY

    Javier Hernandez is flying to London today to have his medical and complete his move to West Ham. The deal is worth £13m and he will become the highest paid player in the club’s history, with his salary believed to be about £140,000 per week.

    How can they afford those wages and what will the other players feel about it I wonder

    We know why. They were gifted a new stadium that cost over 700 million quid.

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  30. Kimtoon:
    11:44 SSN

    HERNANDEZ ON HIS WAY

    Javier Hernandez is flying to London today to have his medical and complete his move to West Ham. The deal is worth £13m and he will become the highest paid player in the club’s history, with his salary believed to be about £140,000 per week.

    How can they afford those wages and what will the other players feel about it I wonder

    IMO a great way to cause bad feeling within the club,player wise

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  31. The British taxpayer is paying Hernandez’ wages. It is simple to connect the dots – Stadium built for Olympics at a cost of 700 million + is given to shady porn hustlers by corrupt council. Shady porn hustlers parlay council’s stupidity into shiny new player who will help keep them in the PL until they are able to sell the club free of council sanctions and trade in their Russian hats for hawaiian shirts.

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  32. If anybody didn’t get that Russian hat reference it is because Sullivan always wears that stupid Russian hat to West Ham games. I just googled him. He owned The Sunday Sport. That’s about all you really need to know 🙂

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  33. Very true Ice, thought the same thing, can’t imagine big Andy being too pleased.
    Site stuttering again when I type 🙁 🙁

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  34. Eric Sykes:
    If anybody didn’t get that Russian hat reference it is because Sullivan always wears that stupid Russian hat to West Ham games. I just googled him. He owned The Sunday Sport. That’s about all you really need to know

    yeah I got it

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  35. Kimtoon: yeah I got it

    I knew you would get the reference Kimtoon. You dislike Wet Spam more than I do.

    I think it is because they are so full of themselves and wrongly think they singlehandedly won England the World Cup. And all of the London Journalists just love them.

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  36. Is this Clucas ginger any good? He has to be better than Colback, surely. He wont give free kicks away 3 times a game on the edge of the box will he?

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  37. We wouldn’t pay 140k a week for a player? You can get half a Rooney for that or 5,000 sacks of potatoes, A WEEK. Same thing, really,

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  38. WOW. It just struck me that what Rooney is being paid by Man U is 10,000 sacks of potatoes a week. Do you realise that is Five Hundred and Twenty Thousand sacks of potatoes a year! Or, to put it another way, if there is 6 stone in a sack that would be 4,368,000 lbs of potatoes, or 1,981,291. 472 kilos. If you put all of those potatoes end to end it would almost circumnavigate Wayne’s belly.

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  39. How many Wayne Rooney’s would it take to change a lightbulb? I don’t know, but I do know that if you cut a potato in half (Rooney)and shove it up there you can get the broken bits out of a socket.

    So that’s 8,736,000 lights fixed using only one Rooney.

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  40. A horse goes into a bar and Wayne Rooney (who is doing some charity work for the day due to commitments to red nose day and all that) says; why the long face? Horse says, fck off you squeaky voiced, potato headed scouse c@nt. And take that Stevie G with you anaal.

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  41. Eric Sykes:
    Is this Clucas ginger any good? He has to be better than Colback, surely. He wont give free kicks away 3 times a game on the edge of the box will he?

    Anybody is better than col-heed,sure Kim could do better than him and she’s a lady

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  42. I hate scouse comedians. Apart from Ken Dodd who was so way out there it was mental. So, Tarby, Stan Boardman and Freddie Starr can all take a hike.

    Oh, I liked Alexie Sayle though, so I will give you a Ken Dodd and raise you 1 Alexie.

    All the scousers think they’re funny though and I can only think of 2 that are. And the Beatles, of course. So, that’s 6.

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  43. I do have something in common with them two mind Ice, ginger hair 😆 , well it’s more light brown and grey nowadays 🙄

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  44. 😆 😆 😆 😆

    Kimtoon:
    I do have something in common with them two mind Ice, ginger hair , well it’s more light brown and grey nowadays

    😆 😆 😆

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  45. Think West Ham’s signing of Hernandez maybe one if he best of the summer. £16m in a season of mad fees isn’t bad for someone who will more or less guarantee goals.

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  46. Stuart79:
    Think West Ham’s signing of Hernandez maybe one if he best of the summer. £16m in a season of mad fees isn’t bad for someone who will more or less guarantee goals.

    Agre Stu apart from his reported 140 grand a week,I think it could upset a few players their

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  47. I will have two of them, and you can have one to, if you want to? But that might be too many for you.

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  48. What the hell am I on about

    Eric Sykes:
    I will have two of them, and you can have one too, if you want to? But that might be too many for you two..

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  49. I think we all are Eric. How we need a stellar signing to ramp up the feel good factor.

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  50. Frustrated Eric. Plot lost altogether. Explaining Viz to the yanks is like explaining Trump to the english.

    This is the weirdest pre season ever. The reports now suggesting we’ll sell 10 PL goals Mitro to buy someone like 9PL goals Andre Gray. We have 2 strikers and are considering selling one.
    5 goalies so we’re after another. Is it just the journalists?

    Hernandez has lost a lot of his youngster pace.

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  51. Andy Carroll links have finally arrived now that Chicharito arrives at wet spam… I for one would have wor Andy back… ???

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  52. Dubai Toon:
    Andy Carroll links have finally arrived now that Chicharito arrives at wet spam… I for one would have wor Andy back…

    If fit I would too mate, trouble is he hardly ever is .

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  53. georgio:
    Wondered how long it would be . . . ah, big Andy.

    It’s only cause they got no real links cause we aren’t doing owt. 🙁

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  54. Carroll is as likely as most of the others we’ve been linked with – and that’s not very likely at all.

    The only ones I see us being able to pull off is Rolan and Gray. They are the only 2 where financially they fit what is happening at the club at the moment.

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