Quote of the day

"One issue I have at the football club is that young players should go out and learn their trade professionally at any club sometimes. That loan system works particularly well for that."

Alan Pardew extols the virtues of farming out the youngsters - a stance to be applauded, as there's no substitute for experience.

The player Pardew singled out for particular praise was James Tavernier, who "has done brilliantly at Gateshead – he’s a player that I keep hearing people say ‘I watched him, he was brilliant’. That’s great news. He might be the one that at the start of next year comes through for us out of that group." Or perhaps even sooner than that, given that he's now been recalled to St James' Park in the wake of Saturday's dismal defeat...

As we've said before, though, the loan system has the potential to be a double-edged sword. Fraser Forster may be continuing to gain big match experience at Celtic, unlucky to end up with a loser's medal from last weekend's Scottish League Cup final, but with each game you sense his willingness to return to Tyneside as understudy to both Steve Harper and Tim Krul will be waning, and I see us struggling to hold onto a very promising young 'keeper in the summer.