Elias Sorensen must get a chance this summer to prove he can be a part of the Newcastle first-team.
The Danish striker has had a torrid time in recent years, with loan moves all over severely denting his development.
First he struggled for minutes at Blackpool. Then he got limited opportunities at Carlisle.
This season, the forward has taken his talents to the second tier of Dutch football. Sorensen joined Almere City last summer, as he looked to get a stuttering career back on the right track. But has he done that?
How has Sorensen got on away from Newcastle?
It was a positive season for Almere City, who finished fourth in the Eerste Divisie. However, they failed to win promotion via the playoffs.
Sorensen enjoyed the best loan spell of his career so far, although there wasn’t much competition.
In total, he played 23 times, scoring five goals and providing four assists.
It’s not a breathtaking tally, but a goal contribution pretty much every other game isn’t a terrible record.
He started 12 league games, whilst he came off the bench in an additional 11. Interestingly, the striker didn’t just play down the middle.
A lot of Sorensen’s appearances at the start of the season came on the right-wing.
Does Sorensen have a future at Newcastle?
The past few years have been difficult for Sorensen.
He was banging in goals for the reserves, with fans clamouring for him to get a chance in the first-team.
The closest he got was in a pre-season tour of China in 2019, back when Steve Bruce was appointed.
Sorensen has struggled in League One and League Two, before scoring a handful of goals in the second tier of Dutch football.
It’s hardly been a vintage start to life in senior football.
But Newcastle shouldn’t give up on him. If anything, they should throw him in at the deep end.
The Magpies are light in attack going in to pre-season. Callum Wilson is the only Toon striker who can be happy with how things went this season – and even he was disappointed.
Andy Carroll seems set to leave, while Dwight Gayle barely featured. As for Joelinton, he certainly improved, but will likely never be the constant source of goals we need.
Newcastle perhaps need to sign a striker this summer. Or they could give Sorensen a chance. What’s the worst that could happen?
If he succeeds, he’ll save the Magpies a fair wedge of cash. And when you consider his competition, the bar to succeed isn’t even that high.
And after proving he can play out wide during his Almere loan, he now has more strings to his bow.
Newcastle must learn from Toney and Armstrong debacle
Newcastle simply have to look at Ivan Toney and Adam Armstrong before deciding what to do with Sorensen.
The former struggled for goals in League One on loan, while the latter only had one impressive temporary spell to shout about.
The pair were sold for a combined £2.4million. This season they scored 63 goals between them in the Championship.
Toney won promotion with Brentford, while Armstrong is being heavily linked with a move to the Premier League.
When you compare their loan spells to Sorensen’s, the Dane has struggled much more.
But it could be another expensive mistake if we let him go only for him to eventually succeed elsewhere.
Sorensen deserves a chance to shine in pre-season. It’ll be up to him whether or not he takes it.
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