The loan system is a vital part of modern football, offering young talents a chance to prove themselves and giving players on the fringe of the first team an opportunity to play regular minutes.
For a club like Newcastle United, successfully managing these temporary moves is crucial for player development and for protecting the value of their investments.
This season, the club has sent seven players out on loan, with the outcomes so far being a real mixed bag.
Some of these moves have already been marked as clear successes. Defender Matt Targett has made an immediate impact at Middlesbrough, contributing both a goal and an assist in his first two appearances.
Even more impressive has been the start for young goalkeeper Aidan Harris at Coleraine FC. His performances between the posts, which saw him concede just a single goal in his first five games, earned him the club’s Player of the Month award a fantastic confidence booster for the promising shot-stopper.
However, for every success story, there is often a move that doesn’t go according to plan. The most concerning situation at the moment involves one of the club’s most exciting young prospects, winger Antonio Cordero.
The 18-year-old Spaniard was a major coup for Newcastle’s academy when he joined, a player so highly regarded that he reportedly turned down advances from Spanish giants Real Madrid and Barcelona to move to Tyneside.
The plan for his first season was always to send him out on loan to gain valuable experience, but the choice of destination raised a few eyebrows among supporters.
Instead of joining a club with a renowned reputation for developing young attackers, Cordero was sent to KVC Westerlo in the Belgian Pro League.
Many fans expressed concern at the time, questioning whether this was the right environment for such a highly-touted prospect to flourish.
Unfortunately, those early concerns appear to have been justified. The season is now underway, and Cordero has found playing time extremely hard to come by.
He has been limited to just 34 minutes of action total and has been an unused substitute in Westerlo’s last two matches.
The most baffling part of this situation came in a recent game where Westerlo found themselves comfortably leading 3-0.
This would seem like the perfect, low-pressure moment to bring on a talented young loanee to gain some experience and build rhythm.
Yet, Cordero remained on the bench. It’s a frustrating scenario for the player and for Newcastle, as he is unable to influence games or develop through match practice.
Reports had previously suggested that a loan to a club like Ajax was a possibility, making his current bench-warming role in Belgium even more disappointing.
This situation brings the club’s loan strategy into focus. In the past, there have been questionable decisions regarding where to send young players.
The case of Garang Kuol is often cited; the Australian attacker was sent on loan to clubs whose style of play was completely different from Newcastle’s, which hindered his development rather than helping it.
Of course, not all loans are failures. The move for Yankuba Minteh to Feyenoord was a masterstroke, as he thrived under manager Arne Slot and returned a much better player.
The responsibility for facilitating these moves falls to the club’s loan department, which is headed by a true Newcastle legend, Shola Ameobi.
He works alongside another former player, Peter Ramage, to find the right clubs for the club’s talents. The hope was that the lessons from past loan misfires had been learned.
The early stages of Antonio Cordero’s time in Belgium, through no fault of his own, suggest that those lessons are still being processed.
For a player of his immense potential, regular playing time is not a luxury; it is an absolute necessity. Everyone at Newcastle will be hoping his situation improves quickly, so he can get back to doing what he does best: playing football and developing into the star he is destined to be.
