A LOT has happened since Newcastle United drew 3-3 with Crystal Palace in the third game of last season. Alan Pardew has changed clubs for a start, swapping St James’ Park for Selhurst Park and leading Palace into the top half of the table. Newcastle are on to their third manager since the game, and have spent more than £50m on new signings to little effect.

Yet for one player preparing to face Palace again this weekend, nothing has changed since August 2014. Siem de Jong made his first Newcastle start in the 3-3 draw – and has not started another league game since.

Two serious injuries, one to his calf and the other to his lungs, have sidelined him for lengthy spells, but a tally of nine Premier League substitute appearances, comprising a grand total of 164 minutes, over the course of 15 months still feels like a chronic misuse of a player who helped Ajax claim four Eredivisie titles prior to moving to Tyneside.

As he sifts through the wreckage of last weekend’s disastrous 3-0 home defeat to Leicester City, Steve McClaren can rightly claim that his scope for changing things is limited. Papiss Cisse and Florian Thauvin have had a handful of chances this season, and have been found wanting on every occasion. It would be hard to have too much faith in either if they were to start on Saturday.

De Jong’s situation is different, though. The 26-year-old, who requested to play for Newcastle’s development team against West Brom yesterday afternoon, remains the great unknown within the United squad. His preferred area of the field, the ‘number ten’ role behind a lone centre-forward, is the most competitive in McClaren’s set up, with Ayoze Perez and Georginio Wijnaldum both keen to fill a similar brief.

Whatever way you look at it though, the status quo is not working. De Jong, with his eye for a pass and comfort in possession, could improve Newcastle’s ability to hold on to the ball in the opposition half of the field. Surely, after last weekend’s debacle, it is time to find out?

“I’m just waiting to get my chance,” said de Jong, after he was thrown on for the final nine minutes of last weekend’s 3-0 defeat. “I’ll do my best in training, and try to get as many minutes here (with the first team) and with the Under-21s as possible to stay fit.

“I hope a chance comes quickly, but it’s up to the manager. I’m fit, but I haven’t played for a while. I’ve been fit all season – it’s not a question of being fit, it’s a question of getting a chance for a couple of games in a row. I speak to the manager a lot. He thinks I’ll get my chance, so I have to be ready for it.”

McClaren’s key concern about de Jong seems to be his ability to handle the pace and physical power of the Premier League.

Technically, it is hard to imagine Newcastle’s head coach having too many concerns about someone who skippered Ajax for two years prior to leaving Holland and boasts six senior caps for the Dutch national side.

The Northern Echo:

UNUSED: Siem de Jong has only made one first-team start for Newcastle since signing in the summer of 2014

A source close to the Magpies boss suggests he sees de Jong as someone who would be most effective if Newcastle were dominating possession and consistently on the front foot in games.

Would the attacking midfielder work hard enough if Newcastle were not controlling the ball? Would the pace of the English game pass him by, as sometimes seems to be the case with Wijnaldum?

De Jong is not as versatile as either his fellow Dutch international or Perez, but he denies that he is ill-suited to the demands of the Premier League.

“The manager sees me a little bit more as an offensive player,” he said. “But I could play a little bit more (further) back as well. It’s a little bit of a different opinion.

“I just hope I get my chance whenever he thinks I’m ready for it. It’s tough being patient, but I need to stay prepared. Sometimes it’s difficult, of course, but it happens in football. Everybody wants to play.”

The problem at the moment is that too many of those who are playing are failing to perform. With that in mind, it is increasingly hard to justify de Jong’s continued exile from the first team.