'Honest and fair': Isaac Hayden regrets not getting to work more with Eddie Howe as he discusses future

At one point it looked like Isaac Hayden was going to become a Newcastle United legend but unfortunately things never quite hit the heights we thought they would.

Signed form Arsenal as a 21-year-old, Isaac Hayden helped Newcastle to gain promotion back to the Premier League at the first time of asking under Rafa Benitez and went on to be a big part of Rafa's revolution.

Hayden was young and full of promise, but when Benitez left the club a certain Steve Bruce was brought in and soon any promise any player had, soon faded.

However, that didn't stop Mike Ashley from handing out long-term silly-money contracts to a few players who had shown promise, Isaac Hayden being one of them.

Isaac Hayden appears to be focused on the wrong thing if he wants his move to QPR to be permanent

As a result, Hayden, who has pretty much been told has no future at the club, still has a contract at St James' Park until 2026 and is earning wages way above what other clubs would be willing to pay, which is making finding a new home for the midfielder very difficult.

Hayden is currently on loan at QPR and in a recent interview (via The Chronicle) has admitted that he'd quite like to stay there beyond this season, but given how he almost immediately brought up the pay cut he had to take, and his following sentence, suggests that the move won't be an easy one to make.

"It's a situation where myself and the club [Newcastle] will have to sit down in the summer and discuss what they want to do, I had to take a pay cut to go to QPR, which I was happy to do for the last few months of the season, to get games.

"But it’ll be back to square one in the summer but hopefully I can help keep QPR up and would love to stay here if possible."

We would have liked to have seen what Howe could have done with Hayden

Hayden then went on to praise Eddie Howe's no-nonsense approach and his firm but fair approach to things while expressing his regret at not getting more of a chance to work with him.

"Eddie’s very intense. If you don't come in to work or training 100 percent switched on, then ready to put in 110 percent, you'll get found wanting with him.

"He’s honest and fair. He’ll tell you what he thinks, whether you like it or not. I played a few games for him before I got injured but then things change.

"There are no hard feelings. I told him, ‘It’s a shame I didn’t get a chance to work with you for a couple of years before because I’d have developed a lot more. He’d stimulate you mentally and before my injury he had me in my best-ever physical shape."

Hayden found himself on the injury list far too often after Howe's arrival and it probably cost him his future. It is a shame really as Howe has improved so many players at Newcastle it would have been interesting to see what he could have done with Isaac Hayden.