As Newcastle continue to stall in the transfer market, rivals are making waves and leaving us behind, with West Ham announcing the £42m signing of Felipe Anderson in the last few moments – a stunning deal which takes their summer spending up to £100m.
As Benitez said yesterday, Newcastle are still in the ‘starting position’ for the window with only a few weeks left to conclude our business – having only really replaced Merino for Ki after retaining Dubravka and Kenedy.
A lack of ambition is nothing new under but with Fulham spending £35m on Seri and now West Ham in the space of just a few months, completing THREE deals which would have smashed our transfer record, the penny pinching from our owner could not be clearer.
West Ham have been impressive in recruiting Issa Diop – £22.5m (on a young CB from France!), Yarmalenko £18m and Anderson for an eye watering £42m from Lazio. There was a real disconnect between board and fans at West Ham last year but they seemed to have listened and backed it up in the market this summer. They also beat us to signing of Fredricks on a free from Fulham and signed Wilshere on massive wages no doubt.
Meanwhile we’re almost in the same position as we were last season, aside from Ki replacing Merino and more money in the bank. it’s a big warning that we’re being left behind by rivals and a tough one to take – we could only dream of making the signings West Ham are making.
It was well documented Rafa turned them down this summer, I don’t think he regrets it but he will certainly be looking at their activity with interest and wondering just like the rest of us, why Ashley wants to keep Newcastle with so little ambition.
Pelegrinni was lined up in January. They have known he is coming since then. This Benitez approach rumour had been discredited ages ago.
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