£124M-£200M+ Set To Warm The Bench With Time Running Out For Starters

With England's inglorious exit from the WC the focus turns 100% back onto NUFC and especially the run down to new signings before our season kicks off on 23rd August.

Osula set to start as main striker

With reports out that Will Osula will start as first choice ST and penalty taker the Wolt and Wissa debate yet again raises its head with the £124M duo set to sit on the bench.

Even if Big Nick starts he'll be playing out of position, especially if Eddie sticks to 4-3-3 and doesn't play him as a 10.

With Gordon and Tonali gone and Bruno's future still unclear last summer's transfer dealings have highlighted how fragile a squad that finished 12th last season now looks.

Another £95M can be added to the accounts under the heading 'Fragile' with £55M Elanga and to a lesser degree £40M Ramsey hardly having any impact since signing.

Instead it was a £15M signing, Will Osula, who made the biggest impact of all with his goals, hard running and robust style of play and is now to be rewarded as No.1 ST.

Malik Thiaw at £35M has proved an astute buy but as well as he has performed his reputation when he signed of having a mistake in him has proved correct.

What of the new signings so far?

c£87M has been shelled out on Jouen, Toure and Steur with only Toure a possible to start the opening game against Liverpool.

That's at least another c£45M warming the Toon bench, and the full £87M if Harvey Barnes starts on the left wing.

The word before the window opened was that the club were unlikely to break the record fee of £69M paid for Nick Woltemade.

Maybe, but they will almost certainly smash the record for bench warmers with potentially well over £200M twiddling their thumbs in the dug out on 23rd August.

Let that sink in for a second.

It begs the question.. why hasn't the c£87M spent so far this window been allocated to a couple of nailed on first team starters instead of an 18 year old and two 20 year olds?

I'm all for signing potentially blossoming young talent but our first 11 desperately needs replacements for the players who have left, never mind a new keeper and at least one FB,

And, with pre-season training having already started and the first friendly not far off time is ticking down fast, yet again, to get those much needed signings bedded in.

Wilson needs to pull his arm out, not just his finger

Missing out on Munoz and Manzambi - two players who would almost definitely have been starters - was yet another rejection blow to add to last season's despair.

But, it is what it is, and Wilson has been here long enough to have compiled a list of alternative targets including for the other positions that need strengthening.

He needs to crack on, and double quick.

And, Eddie Howe needs to be hounding him day and night for results because, as it stands, his first team could be in big danger of starting the new campaign badly.

If that happens - the reaction of fans and the pressure on Howe could be fatal and lead to the death of Eddie's time as manager of Newcastle United.

Wilson needs to pull his arm out.

The clock is clicking down on a transfer window that was rightly deemed critical even before the exits of Gordon and Tonali...

And it's now getting far too close to midnight for comfort.

More signings are needed.

Desperately.

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