STEVE McCLAREN has explained his reasoning behind sending many of Newcastle United’s promising youngsters out on loan by claiming ‘it’s to benefit the player and English football as much as the club’.

Gael Bigirimana became the latest to leave on a temporary basis yesterday - when he joined Adam Armstrong at Coventry City for the rest of the year - and that 28-day loan follows on from Ivan Toney's switch to Barnsley last week.

Armstrong's loan to the Ricoh Arena has seen him score 12 goals in 14 appearances since heading for Coventry in August and that has led to some calls for his return.

But McClaren, who also has a number of others out on loan including more experienced names such as Sammy Ameobi and Mike Williamson, thinks spending time away from a parent club can be ideal for development and experience.

The Newcastle head coach, who allowed both Adam Johnson and Stewart Downing to head out on loan during his time in charge at Middlesbrough, believes such a switch can help to prevent a player from ending up on football’s scrapheap even if they do eventually leave St James’ Park.

McClaren said: “I think our young players are important to us - the likes of Rolando Aarons. I was speaking to my boy and he showed me something on an app on his phone. He said: 'Have you seen that Dad?'

“This app talked about academies and how only around 11 per cent come through academies into the Premier League. There's a chart that shows clubs in the Premier League, debuts that they give academy players and how many of them play ten games or more – I think we're about fifth.

“Honestly, I said to my boy: ‘Wow, that's good.’ Because you tend to think you don't really get anyone through – but the point is nobody brings anyone through. It's only 10 or 11 per cent now.”

Newcastle’s squad is not the biggest, so it will be important in the longer term if he can call on young players to fill gaps initially and compete for a first team shirt. Having given products of academies a chance in the past, he will not change his ways now.

“You know Manchester United gave a debut to a young lad last weekend, Tottenham have done it,” said McClaren. “They've bought Delle Ali and brought him into the team, then they brought in an 18-year-old kid - like Rolando was – came on for them.

“So big clubs are doing it. You just get a little bit scared sometimes because there's so much at stake.

“We're delighted with Kevin Mbabu for example. Sometimes they just come from nowhere. You know he wasn't even training with us, but sometimes you put them on and you just think: 'wow'!”

He added: “It’s important where all the players go. Are they playing? Good football? Right team? Good club? We're looking at that as well.

“Armstrong's a perfect example. I talked to Tony Mowbray (the Coventry manager) and he said: 'Well he does this and we're teaching him to do that and improve this.'

“So I said: 'Perfect. Perfect. Carry on.' And that's good. Hopefully he comes back and we don't need to do that. He comes back, he's played and we don't need to teach him those things.”

Aarons is likely to have played more football either on or away from Tyneside had he not suffered an ankle/foot problem, which is due to keep him out until the New Year.

McClaren said: “If Rolando hadn't got injured we'd have been thinking about him. I think the main thing is we're concentrating on what players we have here and what players we need here.

“We always said we'd have three months training with Ivan Toney and then send him out on loan. That was the plan. It was the same with Rolando but he's not quite there. Other players much the same, especially Armstrong.”