Now that the transfer season is underway and we know the club is not going to be backed by Saudi wealth, the targets are all likely going to have to be bargains.
Bruce’s budget is said to be around the £30m mark plus anything from outgoings, which barring a shocking sale of a top player isn’t likely to amount to much.
We’d expect the bulk of any outlay to be for a few attackers. The club managed just six Premier League goals from their quartet of strikers with two of them, Andy Carroll and Yoshinori Muto, firing blanks.
Muto should probably be sold as he made just 10 appearances all season and only played 6 minutes after the restart. Bruce also hinted that Joelinton may find himself ‘playing to a side’ more often next season.
So there should be squad places for a couple of strikers to be brought in who are hopefully, improvements on Dwight Gayle and Andy Carroll.
Carroll, when fit, can do a job as a physical presence but he won’t be relied upon for big minutes. Gayle reignited his Newcastle career during the final stretch of the season with four goals.
The 29-year-old also had a torrid time with injuries this past season. He has just one year left on his contract so if a decent offer comes in, say £8-10m, it may be tempting to offload the striker.
However, that can only happen if an upgrade is brought in first. Newcastle have no room to mess around with this summer so they can’t be caught short again upfront when the window closes.
The need for goals is similar to last season when we lost Salomon Rondon and Ayoze Perez, our top two goal scorers. But this time due to COVID 19, there will be half the budget available. Though we splurged much of last season’s cash on Joelinton, who wasn’t ever able to get going as a number nine.
Who exactly will fit the bill this time around on such a limited budget is a mystery. It’s going to be a tough task to get quality strikers in but it has to be the top priority heading into this coming season.
228 comments so far
IrishRob
Jul 31, 2020 at 3:35 PM
Comment #1Honestly I’d sell Joelinton if somone offered 15M but the club would never accept such a loss on a player. Hes absolutely terrible and pointless keeping him.
Pat On The Heed
Jul 31, 2020 at 3:37 PM
Comment #2Where’s Kev? Has he been shamed into silence.
Macas
Jul 31, 2020 at 3:38 PM
Comment #3Selling Gayle would be crazy. He’s the only real goalscorer we have. Hopefully his injuries are behind him.
Essex Geordie Bill
Jul 31, 2020 at 3:39 PM
Comment #4Next season might just be the chance for some of the yunguns to prove themselves.
Probably going to be a necessity for us and a lot of the other MINOR clubs as well.
Pat On The Heed
Jul 31, 2020 at 3:41 PM
Comment #5Selling Joelinton now makes no sense.
He should be used in rotation and off the bench, allowing time to adapt to the league. If you’re determined to sell, do it next year. He’s young and his value can’t drop any further.
Pat On The Heed
Jul 31, 2020 at 3:45 PM
Comment #6Carroll is the first out the door for me. No hesitation.
Gayle and Joe miss chances – frustrating but that’s the extent of the problem. When Carroll misses a chance the whole team has been adapted to providing that chance. He makes you play a certain way and if he doesn’t score, you’re trapped in that system. Liverpool went to shit when he joined.
Harrogate mag
Jul 31, 2020 at 3:49 PM
Comment #7Just hit 31 here
Lovem Hatem
Jul 31, 2020 at 3:51 PM
Comment #8Sell Gayle and bring in either Karlan Grant or Ollie Watkins.
Have to Keep Joe for the moment.
lesh
Jul 31, 2020 at 3:56 PM
Comment #9Pat
@….. don’t tempt fate!
Cathedral on the hill
Jul 31, 2020 at 3:57 PM
Comment #10Does anyone think Staveley can prove that the muppets went outside of their O & D remit?
toon22
Jul 31, 2020 at 3:57 PM
Comment #11Finding it hard to care who we sell or buy
It’s irrelevant isn’t it
We will aim for the usual 44 points
Mund
Jul 31, 2020 at 3:58 PM
Comment #12Pat you had to didn’t you 🙁
Harrogate mag
Jul 31, 2020 at 4:01 PM
Comment #13Any minute. ……
RIP NUFC - shut it down
Jul 31, 2020 at 4:14 PM
Comment #14Yup, Gayle only one we have capable of hitting the net with any regularity.
Joelinton and Carroll find it difficult just to get into position to have chances for differing reasons – one doesn’t have the mentality or instinct of a ST and the other s too slow across the ground.
Joleinton should be stripped of the number 9 that’s for sure. Fresh start for him competing in the position he played in for the most part at Hoffenheim – RWF.
Bring in Callum Wilson and Fraser. Wilson has a 1 in 3 record at PL level, similar to Gayle and Fraser provided for many of those and with ASM providing from the other side and Shelvey looking for those through balls, he is capable of getting about 15 league goals in a season.
lochinvar
Jul 31, 2020 at 4:16 PM
Comment #15So he’s now selective about making statements.
Trying to curry favour.
Bet he always wanted to be teachers pet.
Did he ask other clubs for their opinions on this matter ? Thought not.
The Premier League is looking at “clinical passports” to help get fans back into stadiums to watch matches, says chief executive Richard Masters
Masters, writing in The Times, said the Premier League was “willing to see how we can support the development of ‘clinical passports’ – an app-based system that looks at all symptoms and other Covid-19 contributing factors”.
Oldgit1
Jul 31, 2020 at 4:17 PM
Comment #16John stones @ 20m to West Ham. He cost Man City 50m
Mund
Jul 31, 2020 at 4:17 PM
Comment #17Over 15K on signatures so far
bill
Jul 31, 2020 at 4:20 PM
Comment #18Really not interested in talking about the shit players we have, selling them, playing them here and there. I’m done with this shit until I see an owner in situ that will spend, and develop the club in a massive way. I’m sick of waiting.
Mund
Jul 31, 2020 at 4:24 PM
Comment #19Bruce, Ashley, incoming or outgoing transfers doesn’t matter not right now anyhow.
Keep fighting spread the word get it signed. We need to be United fight for our club
https://t.co/HKe7wzWXit?amp=1
Unused Substitute
Jul 31, 2020 at 4:25 PM
Comment #20Carroll is no good other than optics. As for Joelinton, whatever way he is being handled, technically and psychologically, is not working for him. He bungled an opening against Liverpool by what appeared to me giving up possession too easily. Physicality is one of his pluses and he is giving up even on that.
lochinvar
Jul 31, 2020 at 4:26 PM
Comment #21Oldgit1216
John stones @ 20m to West Ham. He cost Man City 50m
That should help them balance their transfer books to comply with Financial Regulations then .
UEFA will be pleased for them.
Wonder if Masters slipped them the idea.
Nothing should surprise anyone.
Transparent organisations ? Too murky to see most.
Essex Geordie Bill
Jul 31, 2020 at 4:34 PM
Comment #22So It’s Brentford or Fulham for the 3rd promotion place.
Can’t see Brentford selling any of their stars cheaply but Cairney could be an option if they don’t make it.
Boy from the Bay
Jul 31, 2020 at 4:34 PM
Comment #23Ground capacity 52,000 – signatures received 15,000
Come on Toon Army – sign up!
Essex Geordie Bill
Jul 31, 2020 at 4:36 PM
Comment #24Suppose speculating about players will make a change from the T/O and Ed and Neil need to have some topics for the blog. 🙂
Essex Geordie Bill
Jul 31, 2020 at 4:38 PM
Comment #25Boy from the Bay
There’s a lot more fans scattered around the world than that!
geordietom
Jul 31, 2020 at 4:39 PM
Comment #2616 thousand signed now
Mund
Jul 31, 2020 at 4:41 PM
Comment #27There’s more than 15K on this blog.
If you haven’t already please take 30 seconds to get this signed keep the fight alive.
http://chng.it/jtcNDcn8NX
Boy from the Bay
Jul 31, 2020 at 4:41 PM
Comment #28@14
I agree Joelinton should have another number. The iconic ‘9’ shirt should have been awarded on merit (rather than being based on a ‘supposed’ £40m transfer fee).
Stupidly giving him this shirt placed undue pressure on him, and an unfounded expectation on us supporters.
Typical of the amateurness of our club really..
Essex Geordie Bill
Jul 31, 2020 at 4:42 PM
Comment #29Oldgit1
A £30m loss is nowt to a heavily (Quatari) subsidised club.
Say’s I in a slightly broken voice!
BlacknWhiteBarmy
Jul 31, 2020 at 4:43 PM
Comment #30Newcastle’s Top Priority This Summer Mirrors A Year Ago – fully agree – Get rid of Ashley and move on.
Taken a day to calm down but here are my thought……
As FatAsh and probably Amanda have / would pass the fit n proper test – why dont PIF loan Amanda the money and let her be the Director / CEO or what ever title the EPL demands. Would even make it easier to do sponsorship deals with Saudis and they get their team. No place on the board but Im sure the aims of both of them are not too far apart
Lindisfarne
Jul 31, 2020 at 4:43 PM
Comment #31Will Mike Ashley repeat and keep his original promise to invest £20m of his own money in the club each season?
If he remarkably does, lets hope for a better investment.
RIP NUFC - shut it down
Jul 31, 2020 at 4:45 PM
Comment #32Shows how many casual fans we have these days. Followers, not supporters, of the club who are as passionate about it as they are their favourite colour.
I’ve signed even though I don’t think it will amount to anything. It’s a tiny chance, but the effort needed to sign it is smaller still, yet there are 1.5m followers of the official NUFC Twitter account and only 16k signatories to the petition.
It should be rocketing up towards 100k given all that’s happened in the last 24hrs, but it’ll likely be a grind just to get it to half of that by Monday.
BlacknWhiteBarmy
Jul 31, 2020 at 4:45 PM
Comment #33Instead of signing up (and paying for the privilige) just drop the Sky / BT sports packages and tell them the EPL have failed us and you dont want to buy the product. Then stream it for free.
Boy from the Bay
Jul 31, 2020 at 4:46 PM
Comment #34Essex
I agree. 50,000 should be the least we can expect. We should be disappointed at anything less than 100,000 supporters signing up.
In the words of Eddie Cochrane “C’mon everybody!”
Essex Geordie Bill
Jul 31, 2020 at 4:46 PM
Comment #35It’s going to depend a lot on whether the Saudi’s are still interested in the deal, I suspect it’s already in their out tray but we can still hope I suppose!
Mund
Jul 31, 2020 at 4:49 PM
Comment #36Bloody Debbie Downers 🙁
Even if there’s a small minuscule of a chance you never give up. We have to fight for our club until we can’t no more.
Pat On The Heed
Jul 31, 2020 at 4:55 PM
Comment #37Two strikers – Callum Wilson and Myron Boadu. With Joel and Gayle that would give us 4 decent, versatile options.
Plus a new mid and a new versatile defender. I would keep Rose at the price reported. Willems maybe a loan – shame but too injury prone.
The ledge
Jul 31, 2020 at 4:57 PM
Comment #38Exactly what mund said keep fighting sign the petition bombard premier league with tweets and emails if you have the time to be on here you can surely take 5mins for the club you support .
Pat On The Heed
Jul 31, 2020 at 4:57 PM
Comment #39Surely signing an online petition is the very definition of casual interest.
The ledge
Jul 31, 2020 at 4:58 PM
Comment #40Essex I think Amanda’s husband has already said they were still interested
If the premier league get there act together