Is this a very good reason why Newcastle United need to rethink their loans policy? | OneFootball

Since the change in regime, Newcastle United have started signing up emerging talent, as opposed to the cast-offs and bargain basement shopping we did in the FCB days.

This supplemented by players who can challenge the existing squad for first team places can only be a good thing, however, that talent needs to be nurtured.

I am not sure if the minutes Garang Kuol earned at the World Cup last year will turn out to be a blessing or a curse. They resulted in a work permit which got him sent out on loan to Hearts.

When you compare that with Yankuba Minteh, who doesn’t have a work permit and is going out on loan to Feyenoord who have just won the Eredivisie and have Champions League football, you have to wonder who is getting the best head start?

I think maybe Shola Ameobi needs to saddle up Silver and get something better sorted for Garang Kuol for the coming season. The minutes that he has played and the quality of football he has been exposed to, compared to what you might get at Feyenoord, or any other decent European side, are light years apart.

A quick Google of the world’s top leagues shows the Dutch Eredivisie in 6th place, the English Championship in 11th, Belgium’s Jupiler Pro League in 13th, with the Scottish Premiership languishing down in 17th place.

Within those leagues the polarisation between successful and unsuccessful is sometimes just as extreme as in the EPL.

So for example, the top four or six of the Jupiler League would probably make decent mid-table EPL teams, the rest are probably Championship level. That’s been shaken up a bit in recent years but only the names have changed. It’s probably the same with the Eredivisie.

That can not be said about the SPL. The gulf between Celtic, Rangers and the rest is huge. In fact, the Danish SuperLiga where Yankuba Minteh has just come from, is ranked higher than the SPL and he has had more game time, albeit over a full season, than Kuol.

Perhaps it’s time we stopped sending our young rough diamonds to the wrong side of Hadrian’s Wall and found good placements in either the Championship or reasonably ranked European leagues.

If player development is going to be a part of our longer term strategy then we need to make sure that our vision for player development extends beyond introducing players to the delights of the deep fried Mars Bar and St Johnstone on a wet and windy Wednesday night.