Of late we've seen quite a few of our players heading out to other clubs on a temporary basis. Huw Richards is a fan...
Alan Tate during a previous loan spell at Leeds
These past weeks, we have seen Scott Tancock and James Loveridge both joining Justin Edinburgh's Newport County. Now, I understand that our Under-21 team needs to be as strong as possible, but surely sending players out on loan is more beneficial than having them pining for first-team action?
Let's take a look at the players we have out on loan right now:-
Alan Tate - Tatey is at Crewe until 24th December, but this is purely case of getting the 32-year-old some game time to help him in his future endeavours. Expect him to be here for a while to come.
Michu - The Spaniard wanted a move, and the loan move to Napoli was the best we could do in the circumstances. Will he be back? It seems doubtful.
Daniel Alfei - Ah yes, Alfei. This is an interesting case as he is 22 years old now, but has a contract here until 2016. He is at Northampton Town until the end of the season, and unless he sets the world alight there it's hard to see him forcing his way into the first team picture.
James Loveridge and Scott Tancock - Both at Newport County and look to have been brought in to be starters. This is something we should do more with our youngsters in my opinion, as it gets them some competitive football under their belts.
If you look at those players the only worthwhile loans are James Loveridge and Scott Tancock, as they are the only ones who still have time to develop. Some youngsters that I would look to loan out are: Josh Sheehan, James Demetriou, Kenji Gorre and Gregor Zabret.
Now, like I earlier said, this would damage the strength of our Under-21 team, but all of the players stated above would be snapped up in a heartbeat by League 1 and 2 teams I would suspect, and it would enable them to gain invaluable experience, despite it being in the lower tiers of English football.
Also, when you look at other Premier League teams, they do this more than us it seems, so why don't we? It certainly seems like a formula for success.
Monk is clearly open to the idea of sending youngsters on loan, so let's hope it's something we see more of in the near future.
Thanks to Huw for his latest piece - you can follow him on Twitter @HuwRichards21. Would you like to see more youngsters sent out on loan? Get in touch!