It’s very interesting that Steve Bruce seemed absolutely confident of getting up to FOUR players in BEFORE the season started in that Sky Sports interview a week ago.
In a message to Keith Downie from last week’s training camp in York, he promised fans there’d be ‘2, 3 or 4’ in by West Ham – which is 14 days away now:
“Make no mistake, there will be 2, 3 or 4 new faces through the door before we start back.
“We need to replace the 3 loan players, we’ve brought in Hendrick – and we have one or two things bubbling away.”
Yet, here we are with Jeff Hendrick still being the only one confirmed. Meanwhile there’s this rumour and that rumour and little concrete being cemented.
Now, I am a believer that not every thing will be made public and in some ways there shouldn’t be.
But it only seems that it’s bad news or no news that comes out of NUFC these days. I know some will point to Hendrick signing and Matty’s new deal as positive issues but in truth that’s grasping and clutching at straws when it comes to good news.
All I can say is that I hope things are “bubbling away” in the background that we don’t know about and we’ll get some nice surprises in the next few days. If not then, well I don’t want to think too much about it.
The Athletic seem to think Arsenal’s Rob Holding will arrive on loan next week, but the signing of another centre-back is hardly us addressing the huge issues in attack.
It was interesting to me that that Luke Edwards who has also been missing in action and in the silent majority camp said this yesterday for The Telegraph:
“Despite the growing unease, Bruce remains upbeat and insists they have not missed out on any of their main targets, despite being linked with a vast number of different players over the last few weeks.”
Which means that all of those who have signed for other clubs or extended their contracts with the current clubs but were linked with us in the past were never therefore in our plans. Not Robinson (Fulham) or Eze (Crystal Palace) or anyone else for that matter.
Interesting (word of the day!) that Arnaud Lusamba who was heavily linked with a free agent move to The Toon still remains without a Club. But then again wasn’t he supposed to be Matty’s replacement so that one seems unlikely as well.
Reports in Portugal say we’ve made a £13m bid for Moussa Marega. A powerhouse with pace and a very good goalscoring record at Porto, but is Ashley really going to pay the money they’ll demand for a 29-year-old in the final 10 months of his contract? I doubt it, but desperate times call for desperate measures, so let’s hope that link is true!
Elsewhere we’re supposed to be involved in a 4-way battle for Celtic’s Odsonne Edouard. Sorry to sound a pessimist but if we are then it’s my prediction that we’ll come FOURTH in that particular race if Everton, Leicester and Aston Villa really are keen.
Which by way of conclusion and summary to this piece is my way of saying if you were a footballer linked with Newcastle would you be in your right mind to want to sign for our Club. Sad, but reality does bite. Mind you when was the last time a footballer was in their right mind!
14 days until the season begins and lots of work to be done if Bruce’s bold promise from a week ago is going to be delivered!
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