OPINION
Newcastle United haven’t inserted a clause into their loan agreement with Carlisle United over Elias Sorensen that will see the youngster play a certain amount of games.
Carlisle manager Steve Pressley claimed on Monday that he is under no pressure from the Magpies to play the 19-year-old a certain amount of games, and stated that parent clubs respect managers to decide how often a player features.
“It’s entirely in our hands,” stated Pressley, as quoted by the News & Star.
“It’s like every loan player – they [the parent clubs] want them here and they want them to play, but they respect us managers have to make these decisions.”
Pressley implies that clauses in loan deals suggesting how often a player should feature aren’t common, but they are.
In fact, it was previously reported in 2016 by the Liverpool Echo, that Newcastle’s Premier League rivals Liverpool insist on a “75 per cent” clause for all of their loaned players, whereby they can fine clubs if a player they have loaned out does not play in a specified ratio of matches.
This policy appears to still be intact at the Reds as Cardiff City boss Neil Warnock previously revealed in January 2018 that he had to play Marko Grujic 14 times or the club would be financially punished, as covered by BBC Sport, and it seems like a smart move on Liverpool’s part.
Given that Sorensen is one of the Magpies’ most promising youngsters, why haven’t the Magpies protected him by having some sort of clause relating to how many minutes he has to play?
The 19-year-old has previously proven himself at youth level, he has scored 15 goals in 34 outings for the Magpies’ U-18s and 16 goals in 26 matches for the U-23s, but got nowhere when loaned out to Blackpool last season.
Sorensen joined the League One club on loan in January and managed to feature for only 32 minutes, as per Transfermarkt.
The Magpies teenager likely didn’t learn anything from his spell at Blackpool, and if anything, the only thing gained from that move was a knock to his confidence.
So Newcastle surely have taken a risk loaning him out to Carlisle with no stipulations in place, as another team failing to utilise him may be costly to his development and confidence.
It was also an avoidable risk to take, as surely the Magpies could have found a club who would have agreed to play Sorensen for so many games as according to the Chronicle, teams were previously queuing up to get him.
So with this in mind, you just hope Newcastle’s risk with Sorensen doesn’t backfire and that Carlisle make the most of him.
