Newcastle United transfer reality as young striker awaits full senior debut

Championship club Wolverhampton Wanderers have delivered an intriguing insight into how they persuaded Newcastle United youngster Sean Neave to snub interest from elsewhere and join them on a season-long loan.

The Magpies academy product has been viewed as one of the most promising prospects within the United youth setup for a number of years after he made his senior debut as a substitute in the first leg of last season’s Champions League play-off round tie with Qarabag before making a Premier League bow by coming off the bench in the final day defeat against Fulham in May.

Neave appeared alongside United’s senior stars throughout their pre-season campaign before returning to the Under-21s setup for the opening games of their Premier League 2 season. However, clubs across the EFL and in Scotland have been paying close attention to the striker’s progress and a loan move away from Tyneside always appeared to be a distinct possibility as transfer deadline day approached.

Neave made his Wolves debut as a late substitute in a 2-2 draw with second tier rivals Birmingham City last weekend but remained on the bench as they claimed a narrow win at Sheffield United thanks to a goal from fellow striker Raul Jimenez. As he looks to gain more senior game-time during his time at Molineux, Wolves has released videos of the conversations they they held with Neave ahead of the move as they set out their plans for the Magpies prospect.

Speaking to the Magpies striker ahead of his move, Wolves technical director Matt Jackson said: “You’ll be aware of where we are at with the team at the moment, we started really well, we’ve got a really close-knit group of players. I believe John Ruddy will be a big mentor figure in that for you, who you will know well and will reflect that spirit that we’ve got going here.

“Specifically, what Cesar [Peixoto] has asked for is to have a young player to develop that is not necessarily expecting to start all of the time but will get a whole load of minutes, get themselves into the team, into a good team that is creating chances as well and hopefully score goals. After that, for him, age has no significance whatsoever. We have good senior figures, I’ve mentioned John but you’ll know Tripps as well in that so we have some good senior figures that can help in that regard as well.”

‘It’s a good opportunity’

Speaking to Neave, his agent and Magpies head of football strategy Jack Ross, Wolves head coach Peixoto urged the young striker to look beyond the competition for a place in his starting lineup and stressed he will ‘manage the situation’ throughout his time at Molineux.

He said: It’s a good opportunity to play in a good team, to fight to win, to play like we play. For your characteristics, this is good. I think don’t look at the names, Raul or Adam because we have to manage the situation to get minutes to play and improve the team.”

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