Report suggests that 'very quick' £15m Newcastle man could now leave the club on loan in January

The word 'crisis' gets thrown around a lot in football but Newcastle United are close to a striker crisis with both first-team strikers currently out injured.

Eddie Howe has Anthony Gordon who can play as a centre-forward, and while he had a good game in that position against Manchester City on Saturday, we're much better off with Gordon out wide.

Newcastle brought in a striker in the summer in the form of 21-year-old Danish U21 international Will Osula from Sheffield United.

Seen as one for the future, Will Osula's main objective has been to keep one of the seats warm in the dugout, although the forward was given his full debut on Tuesday night against AFC Wimbledon after the briefest of cameos against Fulham.

Getty Images

Newcastle could consider sending Will Osula out on loan

It's clear that Eddie Howe doesn't see Osula as being the answer for Newcastle's striker shortage just yet despite hailing him as 'very quick and imposing' in a recent press conference.

Despite his recent arrival and Newcastle's lack of options, iNews has now reported that Osula could be loaned out in January should the Magpies be able to secure adequate reinforcements.

That suggests that a striker could be on the cards in January, but we'll not hold our breath.

We don't see the benefit of loaning out Will Osula

As for letting Osula go out on loan just a couple of months after joining the club and being used as a first-team player, that seems a bit of a backwards step. The piece in the i is about Newcastle bringing in a 'loan psychologist' and that poor guy would certainly have their work cut out for them in this case as it could be a confidence-shattering move by the club to send Osula out in January.

Had we brought him in and put him with the reserves and then opted to loan him we could see the logic, but to do this it just feels like an admission that they got things wrong this summer, and given that Osula was Paul Mitchell's only signing for the club, it really doesn't paint him in a good light.

Thankfully, the report goes on to say that it's believed that intense training and Premier League experience is the best course of action, and that we can agree on.