Southend United manager Phil Brown has gone on to reveal to the Chronicle that Newcastle United boss Rafael Benitez still wants to make five more signings this summer.
Newcastle United have unsurprisingly been very active in the transfer market so far this summer and while the Magpies have lost the services of key players such as Andros Townsend, Georginio Wijnaldum and Fabricio Coloccini among others, manager Rafael Benitez has brought in quality replacements in the form of Dwight Gayle, Matt Ritchie and Grant Hanley.
Isaac Hayden, Matz Sels and Jesus Gamez are the other players who have arrived at St. James’ Park and overall, it seems like Newcastle possess a squad good enough to claim the Championship title this season.
Despite the influx of players though, it has been revealed that Benitez still wants to bring in four or five new players to Newcastle before the end of the summer transfer window – according to Southend United boss Phil Brown.
Brown met up with Benitez following Southend’s pre-season encounter against Newcastle at the Roots Hall Stadium on Tuesday night and the 57-year-old has claimed that the Spaniard is still keen on continuing his relentless pursuit of improving the Magpies’ squad ahead of the upcoming Championship campaign.
The Southend boss revealed to the Chronicle, “I’ve just spoken with Rafa – he came into the dressing room not for a beer, just for a chat. He’s just said to me that he still wants to bring four or five players in and yet you look at the squad there and he can boast what 22 to 24 players in the squad here and every one of them can play in the Championship.
“But he wants better, he wants to get promoted, he wants to finish first, which is every Newcastle fan’s dream to finish as champions of the league. But it’s not going to be easy by any stretch of the imagination. Everybody’s going to go to St James’ Park and it’s their cup final.
“Everybody’s said that, and they’ve got to be mentally prepared for that. Now listen, I’m a North-East man; I’m a Sunderland fan but I’m a North-East man so it’d be great to see Newcastle get promoted and see Sunderland and Middlesbrough stay up there.
“We need to get the North East back on the map as a hotbed of football so it’s great to have three teams up there and challenging to be in the Premier League. It’s a big year for Newcastle though, there’s no doubt about it.”
