Newcastle United director of football Dan Ashworth was reminded by the powers-at-be at Peterborough United what a loan spell at the club for a young centre-back can do by the Posh chairman Darragh MacAnthony.
It follows the move of Newcastle United youngster Kell Watts on loan to the League One club on deadline day.
Speaking on his The Hard Truth podcast, while MacAnthony spoke about the fact Ashworth has a talented Peterborough player on his radar, he also spoke of rumblings of interest in Watts from Championship clubs.
However, MacAnthony reminded Ashworth what a loan spell at Peterborough did for Ben White – a former player of Ashworth’s at Brighton.
“When we rang Dan on Tuesday or Wednesday about this boy we had to remind Dan what we did for Ben White,” said MacAnthony.
“We took him from Brighton and two years later he’s selling him for £50 million.”
Newcastle United director of football Dan Ashworth’s links with Ben White
White was a top talent at Brighton under Ashworth and thrived at Peterborough during a 2019 loan spell. He then went on to excel with Leeds United in their Championship-winning campaign of 2019-20.
From there, White established himself as a first-team regular at the Amex before joining Arsenal for £50 million in 2021.
White is now an England international and the suggestion from Peterborough’s end is, perhaps, they might be able to help Watts reach a similar level.
Could Newcastle United talent Kell Watts follow in Ben White’s footsteps?
The comparisons are fair. Like White, Watts is an imposing but technical central defender, more than happy doing the dirty stuff while also competent with the ball at his feet. The main difference between the two is the fact Watts is left-footed and White right.
Time will tell if Watts – who is currently sidelined with a knee injury – can use his loan stint as a similar propeller to his career as White did.
He is clearly a player Newcastle are not yet giving up on, considering he signed a new two-year deal on Tyneside earlier this year.
If he can use this latest loan spell in a similar way to the way White did, then Newcastle United and Ashworth might be able to develop a top centre-back talent at St James’ Park.
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