Another loan move looms for Garang Kuol, with Newcastle United manager Eddie Howe adamant the Australian youngster needs more minutes after making his club debut.
Kuol came off the bench and scored in a penalty shootout in the Premier League giants' friendly win over Ange Postecoglou's Tottenham at the MCG with 20 minutes to go on Wednesday night.
He played as a central striker but saw little of the ball before the game, locked at 1-1 at full-time, went directly to penalties.
The 19-year-old attacker took Newcastle's fourth spot-kick and coolly converted it, in front of 78,419 fans at the MCG, as the Magpies won the shootout 5-4.
Kuol has had tough loan stints at Scottish club Hearts and Dutch outfit Volendam since joining Newcastle last January.
The fringe Socceroo is on a four-year deal at Newcastle but his next step will be an intriguing one.
At Volendam, he recorded a total of 726 minutes (eight starts), but just 32 minutes in 2024, while he only played 205 minutes in total for Hearts
When asked if a loan move was again on the cards, Howe said: "Yeah, possibly.
"It's always very difficult to say for certain what's gonna happen with a player at this stage because there's a long way to go before the season starts.
"But possibly another loan spell for him I think will be important.
"He's had a couple of loan spells now but I think he needs the next one to be a successful one.
"We need him to play more game time. Hopefully that'll happen."
Newcastle didn't make Kuol available to media after the match to discuss his debut, but Howe praised the teenager.
"It was just to give him an opportunity to showcase his talents," Howe said.
"He's been with us since we started our journey from England. It's great to see him again and chat with him.
"Difficult game to come into - we didn't have a lot of the ball, we went to a slightly younger team.
"So then it was a case of just defending and seeing the game out in that way and I thought he contributed to that and took his penalty really well. So I'm delighted for him."
Howe confirmed Kuol would again feature in Friday's match against the A-League Men All Stars, after shooting to prominence against Barcelona in 2022.
"Yeah, definitely he'll be involved," Howe said.
"A lot of our international players will now move back to their various countries where they're going to prepare for the Euros and different competitions.
"It'll be a younger team for us."
