Gary Neville believes the big challenge facing Newcastle United this summer is our ability to pursue “big name signing” without disrupting the superb team spirit on and off the pitch.
The Sky Sports pundit believes high-profile additions will be needed if we are going to “make that jump” to compete with Europe’s elite, but knows Howe has been reluctant to unsettle what has been a united dressing room over the past 18 months.
Neville says the prospect of Neymar signing at St James’ Park ‘scares him to death’, yet he knows superstar arrivals like him don’t fit in with our recent recruitment policy. In time, though, he feels Howe “needs to be brave” and “go for it” when it comes to elite arrivals who could inject some world class quality into our side.
It will be a huge test over the coming years to upgrade areas of our first-team squad while keeping the togetherness of the team intact, but who says ‘Neymar’s’ are needed? If we can continue to sign gems like Bruno, Botman and Isak – players with huge potential to grow with the club – we’ll save plenty cash and avoid splashing mega-money on ready-made superstars.
Speaking on is podcast, Neville had this to say when asked about links to Neymar:
“That (Neymar) would scare me to death, that sort of signing.
“Neymar is a sensational player but I think Eddie Howe all of a sudden would sort of have a circus – Eddie Howe doesn’t need a circus up here. You think about what Newcastle are at this moment in time, they’re building, they’ve got foundations.
“What you don’t want to do is basically go and disrupt that. Fans are really behind the team they’re behind the manager, there’s a sort of a spirit building.
“They’re going to need to do it at some point, go for those big name signings, and they’re going to need to make that jump and Eddie’s going to need to be brave at a point and say ‘yeah let’s go for it’.
Our squad is stretched to the limit now and we need to upgrade in a number of positions that is our situation with a couple of injuries without any European fixtures.
Big name signings are not expected, the money from Champions League football if we attain it will perhaps allow us to progress slightly quicker but I still see it as a three to four season build minimum.
The great thing is for once in a long time the club has ambition.
Joseph(Quote)
Well we’ve managed alright up to now.
He’s a thought, let’s leave the ‘big name’ signings to the likes of Man Utd & Chelsea and we focus on signing quality players regardless the size of the names.
Sharpy17(Quote)