Newcastle United have January transfer decision to make as midfielder clause revealed

Newcastle United midfielder Rory Finneran has continued to impress during a loan spell with League One club Notts County after already drawing praise from manager Martin Paterson.

The former Blackburn Rovers academy star joined Newcastle during the summer of 2024 after making a senior debut for the Championship club in an FA Cup tie against Cambridge United at the age of just 15 years, ten months and eight days. Finneran has established himself as one of the most promising midfielders in the Magpies academy setup over the last two years and featured during the first-team’s pre-season friendly schedule during the summer. That came just weeks after the 18-year-old made his senior international debut for the Republic of Ireland in a 5-0 win against Grenada.

However, his first consistent spell of senior football has come with Notts County after joining the Magpies on a season-long loan deal in late August and he quickly impressed during the early weeks of his time at Meadow Lane. Finneran scored his first senior goal with a low drive from the edge of the area in a 2-1 defeat against Oxford United two weeks ago and caught the eye once again on Tuesday night when his pinpoint pass allowed team-mate Darius Lipsiuc to double his side’s lead in a 2-0 home win against League One rivals Sheffield Wednesday.

As it stands, Finneran will spend the entire season at Meadow Lane - although, as is common in most season-long long agreements, The Gazette understands Newcastle do hold a recall option that can be triggered during the January transfer window.

County boss Paterson believes his club have been able to give Finneran a ‘showcase’ for his talents and gave an insight into how he is dealing with the youngster during his time at Meadow Lane.

‘They’ll get an opportunity at this football club’

Speaking earlier this month, the Magpies boss said: “They said we’re bring­ing in this young lad from New­castle and I don’t really care for age when it comes to who plays. In my mind, if they’re a good player and they’re fit, and they’ll work hard, then they’ll get an oppor­tun­ity at this foot­ball club. All the boy has done is come and show­case what he’s about. Some­times, with some play­ers, you don’t coach them rig­or­ously; you just go out and let them play, which is something all coaches learn at some point.

“You have to be humble enough in my pos­i­tion to some­times just say: ‘I’ll let them play.’ There might be some tac­tical inform­a­tion that you give them now and then. It could be just to remind them where to go when they lose the ball, something as simple as that. Some­times, if god has given them the tal­ent, you just let those kinds of play­ers go out and play and give them the con­fid­ence to do so, which in my mind is the dis­tinc­tion between coach­ing and man­age­ment.”

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