Rolando Aarons has admitted that he was “massively” disappointed when Steve Bruce decided against naming him in his Premier League squad for this season.
Aarons, 23, moved on loan to League One side Wycombe Wanderers after being snubbed by Bruce, even though he played quite a lot of football during the Magpies’ pre-season friendlies.
Aarons was not the only player who was not handed a squad number by Bruce at the start of the season with Achraf Lazaar, Jack Colback, Henri Saivet and Jamie Sterry also being frozen out by the Toon boss.
However Aarons is thankful that he managed to get a loan move to Wycombe and reckons that his spell at Adams Park could be extremely beneficial for him in the long run.
“I was massively surprised and pointed, because the week before I had started the preseason game and I had played every game in the summer so the minimum I thought was I was going to be in the squad,” Aarons told the Guardian.
“It was a tough time and frustrating but the gaffer here [Gareth Ainsworth] rang my agent.
“My agent told me to speak to him [Ainsworth] and hear him out. I need to do well here – it’s a massive loan.
“Hopefully when it gets to January I’ll look back at this loan and be very, very happy about it.”
OPINION
Aarons could not have been that shocked to have not been named in the squad for the Premier League. Last season he spent time on loan at Slovan Liberec and Sheffield Wednesday, so it was always unlikely that he was going to be used in the top-flight by Newcastle. Just because he played pre-season friendlies does not mean a lot. Bruce was probably just trying to get a better look at him before making a final decision and at the end of the day, Bruce’s decision is justified because Aarons is now playing in League One. It is a shame that Aarons has not quite developed into the player that everyone expected him to be but he is doing quite well at Wycombe and you never know, there could be a Championship club that comes in for the 23-year-old attacker in the January window when his loan spell at the third-tier expires.
