Newcastle could be about to cut their losses on failed 'wonderkid' experiment after just one appearance

Since the PIF-backed takeover at Newcastle United and more accurately, following the arrival of Dan Ashworth as sporting director, there's been a huge focus on snapping up young talent to develop for the future.

It's was a great idea, especially given how our own academy was lacking any real stars. Bringing in hot prospects from other clubs to increase the potential in the ranks while work continues on developing the academy into something that rivals that of Manchester City's seems like the way to go.

It may well be the one thing that Dan Ashworth did right in his brief tenure as sporting director. However, not every youngster we've signed has lived up to the promise they arrived with.

One glaringly obvious misfire is Garang Kuol. The Australian wonderkid who made his senior international debut shortly before officially joining Newcastle in January 2022 arrived with all the promise in the world, but it seems he left it behind in Australia.

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Kuol's few touches on Wednesday did little to inspire confidence

In his one-and-a-half seasons at Newcastle, Kuol has spent his time out on two separate disastrous loans. Initially moving to Hearts in the Scottish Premiership, Kuol was a rarely-used addition to the Hearts squad, and when he did make an appearance it was usually too late in the game to affect anything.

We chalked that one down to a bad move for the youngster. Next up was a season-long loan to Dutch Eredivisie side FC Volendam who struggled all season in the league, hardly an environment for a young player who's trying to adapt to moving literally half way around the world to thrive. Kuol did manage to bag a goal for Volendam, and quite a stunner it was too, but overall, it was another unsuccessful loan move, especially when you compare it to the other teenager we sent to the Eredivisie in Yankuba Minteh.

It would be easy to once again say that it was a poor choice of club to send Kuol to Volendam, but the common denominator here is the player himself.

Kuol could be moved on by Eddie Howe sooner rather than later

On Wednesday, Garang Kuol finally made his Newcastle debut in the friendly against Tottenham Hotspur in his native Australia. Coming on after 71 minutes, Kuol had absolutely zero impact on the game as he cut a frustrated figure sitting up top on his own as Newcastle's kids struggled to get the ball off their Tottenham counterparts.

The 19-year-old may have had two or three touches of the ball before the full-time whistle blew, none of which inspired any confidence, however, he did take a penalty in the resulting shoot-out and despatched that with confidence.

Kuol will likely make another appearance in Friday's game against A-League All Stars, but that may well be the last we see of him in black and white as The Athletic believes Eddie Howe feels he's nowhere near ready for the first team and may look to move him on sooner rather than later.

It's very likely to happen too as Kuol's signing had very little, if anything, to do with Eddie Howe being a Dan Ashworth acquisition.