As revealed by The Athletic, Dan Ashworth has stressed that it will take ‘at least two more’ summer transfer windows to transform Newcastle into a squad able to challenge the Premier League’s elite over the duration of a season.
It’s believed this behind-the-scenes message comes after our last three games – defeats to Liverpool, Man Utd and Man City – have highlighted our lack of strength in depth and missing ingredient in attack.
It’s been a superb season so far. We have the best defence in the league, went on an incredible 17-game unbeaten run and have been outstanding at St James’ Park, but things have fallen flat following the World Cup break, seeing us win one of our last eight league games and score just six in our last nine in all competitions.
The snippet from The Athletic’s latest piece says, ‘There has been only one summer transfer window under this ownership and, as Dan Ashworth, the also-still-new sporting director, has preached internally, it will require at least two more of those before Newcastle will boast a player pool that can challenge for the duration of a season. In their past three matches, the quality gap has been spotlighted.’
Ashworth has hinted at the need for a ‘deeper squad’ and ‘greater experience’ in a recent interview, explaining why it’s so tough for sides like Newcastle to ‘defy their pedigree’ without sustained investment.
Speaking about the battle to establish ourselves as an ‘elite’ Premier League side, he said:
“Teams can only defy their pedigree for so long; eventually, deeper squads, with greater experience, will assume their natural positions, while others will regress towards their mean.
“Across a 38-game Premier League season, it is extremely difficult for the pretenders to outlast the established elite.”
Hopefully this summer is another exciting one for Newcastle United fans, featuring a real show of intent from our new owners as we pursue a few quality attackers, a top class No 6, attacking left-back and additional competition at centre-back.
