Newcastle United man who 'would love' QPR move pictured in Middle East as summer exit expected

Newcastle United midfielder Isaac Hayden has been pictured training in the Middle East as he prepares to move on from the St James’ Park club this summer amid a previous admission he would ‘love’ to seal a permanent move to Queens Park Rangers.

The 29-year-old has not played for the Magpies for over two-and-a-half years, with his last appearance for the Premier League club coming in December 2021. He spent the 2022-23 season on loan at Norwich City before being loaned out to Standard Liege and Queens Park Rangers last term.

Hayden joined the Loftus Road club when they were in the midst of a Championship relegation battle, and made 17 appearances as QPR eventually finished six points above the bottom three of Birmingham City, Huddersfield Town and Rotherham United.

The midfielder will train away from the rest of the Newcastle squad this summer, according to Newcastle World, with QPR said to be interested in re-signing the player who is under contract with the Magpies until 2026. Hayden shared an update on his pre-season on Instagram as he visited Aspetar, an orthopaedic and sports medicine hospital in Doha, Qatar.

As he ponders his next move, Hayden has already admitted he would like to return to West London, and that he took a pay-cut to secure his loan move to QPR.

He said back in April: "Things move quickly in football and you move on. But it's a situation where myself and the club will have to sit down in the summer and discuss what they want to do. I had to take a pay-cut to go to QPR, which I was happy to do for the last few months of the season, to get games. But it’ll be back to square one in the summer but hopefully I can help keep QPR up and would love to stay here if possible."

Upon signing his loan deal with QPR, Hayden said back in February: “You can take the easy option in life and do things the easy way or you can take a challenge on and go head first into it. That’s what I wanted to do here. I have looked at the squad and there are some really good players in it. There is definitely enough there but it is about us proving that on a matchday when it counts.”

R’s head coach Martí Cifuentes has already given his verdict on the player, as he said when Hayden signed for the club on loan: “I am very happy the club has managed to get in a player like Isaac. He is experienced in the Premier League and the Championship, he has played a lot of games and shown his quality.

“Not only is his experience important but also the determination that he showed to come here and the effort he made to play for QPR. That speaks highly about him. He will definitely be an important player for us to achieve our target at the end of the season.”

Hayden certainly helped the club achieve their goals of Championship survival. QPR start their 2024-25 Championship campaign against West Brom at home on August 10 before their first away game a week later at relegated Sheffield United.