Jamal Lewis believes a top 10 finish should be ‘easy’ for this squad to achieve this season, believing we have the players to be much better than our early results suggest.
Steve Bruce’s Newcastle have picked up just one point from our opening three games and shipped in EIGHT goals in the process, despite not playing any of the so-called big boys as of yet.
Lewis himself has struggled since his £15million arrival from Norwich a year ago, but he believes the current side is much more capable than some suggest.
Here is what he said to the PA news agency:
“I think this team is capable of an easy top-half finish, stringing performances together that the fans love.
“Obviously with the fans coming back, being strong at home and hard to beat, we can create some great memories this season.
“I think the top half is a viable target for us, but executing it is different. We need to talk less and string these performances together.”
Many pundits have insisted that Bruce can only do so much with a ‘limited’ group of players, yet Lewis isn’t the first squad member to suggest we have what it takes to be much better than merely staying up.
While I admire his positivity, I think it is slightly misplaced. Realistically, while Ashley and Bruce remain, the best NUFC can hope for is another season like last time out, where we stayed up comfortably after getting our key players back from injury.
Forget the European sides, clubs like Everton, Arsenal, Leeds and Aston Villa are all light years ahead of us right now, so I doubt we have the talent to break into that top 10 anytime soon.
Right now, it feels like our best hope is avoiding a relegation fight and enjoying a cup run when the FA Cup comes around in January – even that feels a stretch!
Jamal the super star certainly won’t be able to contribute to this, he can’t even get a game!
Perhaps that is one of the problems, Bruce doesn’t always pick players who have that type of confidence?
Joseph(Quote)