Newcastle United midfielder Issac Hayden has lamented his failure to capitalise on his opportunity as a young player at Arsenal in the way that Sean Longstaff has done at St James’ Park.
The 24-year-old was never quite able to make the breakthrough at the Emirates Stadium, before eventually joining Newcastle where his career has kicked into gear in recent months.
Now, he’s had his say: “The way I see it in football is that when you’re a young player coming through the youth academy system at any club, it’s all about your window of opportunity,” he told The Chronicle.
“You look at Sean Longstaff here, players got injured, he came in and took his opportunity and he showed what he’s capable of doing. He’s performed well on the Premier League stage consistently. It was similar circumstances for me, but I was the other way round. I got an opportunity and I got injured and was out for 10 months and the opportunity had gone.”
OPINION
This is an interesting insight from Hayden, and he’s probably bang on the money. It is about opportunities as a young player. You need to be ready to grasp whatever chance you can get in the first team, because before you know it your opportunity has gone and you’re being shipped out to a lower league side. That’s what Longstaff would have been fearing earlier this season, but some injuries occurred in his position and he was suddenly in the thick of it on a weekly basis in the Premier League. He’s never looked back from there, and it’s just a shame that injuries have halted his progress recently. It obviously didn’t work out in quite the same way for Hayden at Arsenal as a young player. When his chance came it was him who suffered an injury and his Gunners career never truly recovered from that setback. However, he is now in his element at Newcastle and performing on a regular basis so it all worked out well in the end.
