Nice interview in The Athletic with Issac Hayden. Pretty long read but here is R’s bit for anyone interested.
In the second half of the 2023-24 season, there was another loan, this time to QPR. It was a good fit, even if they were struggling in the Championship. “Great club, great history,” he says. “I did my research, the squad looked good, the training ground is unbelievable.”
People won’t know the next bit. “They didn’t have much money,” Hayden says, “I had other options, but I really wanted to play for them, so I took a big pay cut to go there. It sounds crazy, but I was effectively paying to play.”
It worked out. QPR stayed up and over the course of that entire season, Hayden played regularly. “I didn’t miss a game I was fit for,” he says. “I wasn’t injured once. Physically, I was back. QPR was like a match made in heaven. I’d have loved to have made that permanent.”
And then? “I’d played the last few games of the season with a dislocated shoulder,” he says. “Not ideal, a bit tricky. I thought it was going to be an injection and then rest, but the surgeon said it was completely gone. If I didn’t have an operation, I wouldn’t pass a medical.”
On his future (nothing Rs related - at the moment!)
Now what?
“It’s a good question,” Hayden says. He is as fit as he ever has been, with a personalised pre-season under his belt, training every day with a specialist coach at Regent’s Park. “I’m a free agent for the first time in my career, which is weird, so I’m waiting for the phone to ring.
“I feel excited. I’m at the age where I want to really impact a club. Can I improve their players and help them develop? Can I contribute in a bigger way, whether on or off the pitch? I’m open. If somebody sees value in me, then great, let’s have a conversation.”
He is still coming to terms with the absence of Newcastle. During his own absences, at Norwich and the rest, he “always felt really happy the club was going in the right direction. And I was still representing Newcastle in a way. My name always had Newcastle next to it and that meant something. I never wanted to let them down.”
A funny thing. Back in January, before he left for Fratton Park, with the long goodbye drawing closer, Hayden had a thought. “I’ve got a ‘what-if’, positive kind of personality,” he says. “Even then, I was looking at Newcastle and thinking, ‘What if I got a training session with the first team, what if I did really well, what if I made my way back into a squad, what if I got a chance?’.”
Another funny thing. He has finally gone but cannot wait to come back. “I hope people know I did my best whenever I put the shirt on,” he says. “Now it’s fully over, I would love to come to a game again.”
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