According to The Chronicle, Steve Bruce tried his best to bring Ross Barkley to Newcastle United over the summer.
This comes from Mark Douglas’ latest piece on the transfer front, which claims that Bruce ‘pressed’ Mike Ashley to sign the Chelsea midfielder on loan – only to be told a deal was ‘impossible’ as we’d failed to move on the likes of Saivet, Atsu, Aarons and Lazaar.
In the end, Barkley ended up signing for Aston Villa and has had made an impressive start to life under Dean Smith prior to his injury last month.
This may also explain why we made no attempt to sign Reuben Loftus-Cheek as he headed to Fulham on deadline day, with several fans on social media urging us to pursue a loan deal.
Moving forward, The Chronicle report that Bruce remains eager to add more ‘Premier League know-how’ to his side, with the signing of another midfielder said to be high on the agenda.
A dynamic, box-to-box midfielder is something we lack and could be an area we look to improve in January, however it seems several fringe men may need to be moved on to make that possible.
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Make your mind up, you’ve just got rid of a box to box midfielder. GINGER JACK COLBACK. Lol.
LLATG.
Garry Wallace(Quote)