Newcastle United coach issues loan update amid conversation with Aston Villa man

Ben Dawson has admitted Newcastle United face a balancing act as they face decisions over the short-term futures of several young players.

It has already been a busy month for the Magpies academy with Under-21s trio Dan Langley, Joe White and Dylan Stephenson completing loan moves to Spennymoor Town, Exeter City and Hamilton Academical respectively.

With Tuesday’s transfer deadline now just days away, there is believed to be interest in a number of players in United’s second string with Jay Turner-Cooke, Niall Brookwell and Matty Bondswell all believed to have admirers with the EFL, National League and Scotland.

However, Dawson, who was handed a new role within an academy restructure announced on Thursday, has revealed any decision over further loan departures will be subject to meeting strict criteria put in place by loan manager Shola Ameobi and assistant Peter Ramage.

He told NewcastleWorld: “I think it’s really difficult because a lot of the players will have ambitions of going on loan, their agents will have ambitions of them going out on loan - but, if nobody is picking the phone up, yes, you might be ready for a loan, but you have to have someone that wants to take you.

“There may be others that aren’t ready for a loan but people are ringing. It’s difficult to get that balance and in fairness to Shola (Ameobi) and Peter Ramage, they have done a lot of work behind the scenes making sure we have some robust criteria, a checklist to see are they hitting this, are they hitting that so we don’t send somebody out who isn’t ready and they go and it’s a total failure straightaway.

“They’ve done some good work in setting that up just so we can be a little bit more robust with the decision making process.”

Dawson admitted it can be a challenge to make the right decision over allowing young players to make the next step in their development and stressed the Magpies will continue aiming to do what they believe is best for their prospects.

“The difficulty you have with the Under-21s is you never know who you are going to be playing against,” he explained.

“Speaking to Tony Carrs (Aston Villa Under-21s manager), they’ve got 13 out on loan. They’ve got that policy where they get them out on loan. Is that right for every player? I don’t know, they’d be able to answer that. We can only do we think is best for ours but ultimately somebody has to want them.”

The Magpies Under-21s are back in action on Monday afternoon when they face their Sunderland counterparts at the Stadium of Light (1pm kick-off).