Eddie Howe has an embarrassment of riches at his disposal in Newcastle United’s midfield, but in defence his options are somewhat limited which is why sending Harrison Ashby out on loan could be a mistake.
In January Newcastle signed Harrison Ashby from West Ham for around £3million after pursuing him since the summer. Despite the fee and the lengthy pursuit, Ashby was sent to train with the Under 21s with Eddie Howe making it clear that he saw Ashby as one for the future.
The 21-year-old has been likened to Kieran Trippier in his style of play and is seen as a long-term replacement for the England international.
Ashby has been linked with a loan move to Swansea
There has been lots of talk lately that Ashby is close to joining Swansea City on loan this season in order to get more first-team experience, which does makes sense. Should he stay at Newcastle he’s hardly likely to be playing week in week out, however Howe shouldn’t be so quick to send him away.
Ashby started the game against Brighton last night and looked very decent, showing his pace and his tenacity on several occasions. While his passing was sometimes a bit wayward it’s not really a great cause for concern as it has been a theme of pre-season for most of our players, it’s just that lack of match-sharpness.
As I said, if he sticks around it’s not like he’s going to get in the first-team ahead of Kieran Trippier but with Javier Manquillo one of the players likely to leave this summer that only leaves Emil Krafth as a back-up.
While Krafth did extremely well deputising for Trippier at the back end of the 2021/22 season, he has missed almost an entire season through injury since and isn’t likely to be up to speed for a while. Ashby, meanwhile, has shown already that he’s good to go.
The rumours surrounding Newcastle and Tino Livramento are still circulating but there’s a feeling that due to the two clubs being so far apart on their valuation of the player it’s one that could drag on until the end of the window and still might not get done.
Eddie Howe would do well to keep Ashby around at Newcastle
Therefore it makes sense to keep Ashby around. He’s earned his shot in pre-season as one of the cluster of academy players who look ready to make that next step along with Lewis Miley and Alex Murphy – I’m not counting Elliot Anderson in this as he’s a first-team player now, but he does deserve a mention.
While sending Ashby out to get first-team experience in the Championship makes sense in some respects, the experience he can get training with the first-team, learning from Kieran Trippier and potentially playing in the Premier League and in the trio of cups Newcastle are competing in could be far more valuable.
As I always say, though, Eddie Howe knows far more than I do and I trust him to make the right call, but I’d love to see Ashby given his chance next season.
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