If you thought us closing in on the loan signing of Arsenal’s Rob Holding was bizarre, you’ll struggle to comprehend the big claims coming out of Turkey on Saturday tonight.
According to Turkish outlet Mynet, Newcastle are close to striking an agreement with Galatasaray to sign their star centre-back Marcao.
They claim the Brazilian could complete a £15m move to Tyneside “next week”, and, to add fuel to the fire, it’s also emerged that the 24-year-old has just followed Newcastle United on Instagram:
Turkish reports and Instagram activity aside, I’m REALLY struggling with this one.
If our budget really is £30-£35m and we’re ‘boxing smart’ in the transfer market as a result, why on earth would we spend this sort of money on yet another centre-back?
Unless we’re cashing in on both Schar and Lejeune and there’s a more sinister reason behind Jamaal Lascelles’ absence from today’s squad in our win over Barnsley, I just can’t comprehend why we’d need Holding AND Marcao when we’ve already go SIX capable central defenders on our books.
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Well that’s great when ALL WE NEED IS A STRIKER !!!
mactoon(Quote)
I think you hit the nail on the head.
We have six CAPABLE defenders.
It’s about time we had some GOOD ones.
It has been said a few times on these pages that all GOOD teams have one, maybe two GREAT defenders.
It’s no coincidence that Liverpool just happen to have Van Dijk in their team, while they are doing so well. It’s only a couple of years ago that Citeh were doing well, then Kompany leaves and what happens? Chelsea had Terry, Arsenal Adams and Keown, Man U – Ferdinand.
When you build a good team it starts from the back. Yes we are not scoring goals but we re letting in far too many.
I can’t understand why we keep boasting about how many saves Dubravka made last season when that number it’s a direct result of how porous our defence was.
We finished in 13th, but goal difference would have us just above the relegation zone.
Lascelles has finally been found out, and personally I would rate both Clark and Fernandez above him.
We complain about wasting loan signings on defenders but the truth of it is, we can improve our back line with loans, we would have difficulty improving our attack that way.
Geoyank73(Quote)
Steve Bruce would probably like to field 10 defenders with one goalkeeper one day..Ha ha.
B Mitra(Quote)
Bit harsh on lascelles…considering he was not in the team during our end of season losing run in. Lascelles brings in leadership at the back which we were missing.
Dan Elias(Quote)
I’m not referring to the losing run in – I’m referring to the whole season.
Geoyank73(Quote)