Provides short-term loan for potential replacements (4)
I believe the answer is:
subs
'provides short-term' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this defines the answer.
'loan for potential replacements' is the wordplay.
'loan' becomes 'sub' (I've seen this before).
'for' says to put letters next to each other.
'potential replacements' becomes 's' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'sub'+'s'='SUBS'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for subs that I've seen before include "Advance payments" , "Club members' payments" , "Underwater vessels (abbr)" , "Players in reserve" , "Reserves at football (sl.)" .)