Queens Park Rangers manager Mark Warburton was surprised to land Premier League veteran Jeff Hendrick on loan from Newcastle United in the January transfer window, speaking to Football League World.
Where there’s incomings, there’s outgoings too.
And if Hendrick was struggling for game-time already, playing just 70 minutes of football during the first half of this season, the Ireland international must have known that the writing was on the wall when Newcastle stumped up £33 million for Bruno Guimaraes last month.
Hendrick dropped down to the Championship on deadline day, joining promotion-chasing QPR on loan until the end of the season.
Much to Warburton’s surprise.
“I think this is a bigger discussion about players filtering down leagues and financial situation and considerations,” reflects the former Rangers and Nottingham Forest boss. “And the gap at the top getting wider and wider.
“What do I mean by that? We shouldn’t have Jeff Hendrick, for example.
“I wouldn’t have thought, four weeks ago, we’d have a chance with someone of that nature. 70 caps for Republic of Ireland and five years (in the) Premier League. But they’re starting to filter down.”
Does Jeff Hendrick have a future at Newcastle United?
Isaac Hayden, Ciaran Clark and Jamal Lewis are facing uncertain futures at St James’ Park too.
The trio were left out of Howe’s 25-man Premier League squad for the remainder of the campaign, falling down the pecking order following the arrivals of Guimaraes, Dan Burn and Aston Villa loanee Matt Targett.
Sean Longstaff, Fabian Schar and Paul Dummett are out of contract this summer too.
Of the aforementioned trio, Schar may be the most likely candidate for a new deal given his recent performances. Though that may depend on whether Newcastle succeed in landing one of their top summer targets, be that Sven Botman or Diego Carlos.
Longstaff, meanwhile, was a target for top-flight rivals Everton. Until the departure of his former Newcastle boss Rafa Benitez, that is.
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