Callum Wilson set to be out for around 8 weeks with new hamstring injury (Howe)

[Strawberry]

Agent of Callum Wilson suggesting his preferred move is #NUFC

 

 

From the Atheltic today.

 

Beyond the usual stuff like making the team better and providing competition, there is one prevailing theme in Steve Bruce’s approach to the present transfer window and the players he is targeting. No more gambles, no more throwing of the dice at Newcastle United; not now, not this summer, not with finances so tight and the jeopardy so great. Not in the teeth of yet another storm.

 

The success of no new player is guaranteed — how long will he take to settle, to gel with his team-mates, to get up to speed? — but Bruce wants the tried-and-tested. Traditionally, this is not what Newcastle’s owner Mike Ashley does. That shifted a little under Rafa Benitez, when the manager had the final say on who came in and out, and a solid team was built to escape the Championship and then establish itself back in the top flight, but there was a reversion to type following the Spaniard’s departure last summer.

 

Jeff Hendrick has arrived on a free transfer at the end of his Burnley contract. They have been “close” to signing Ryan Fraser, also on a free after his Bournemouth deal expired, and Rob Holding, on loan from Arsenal, for quite some time; Fraser (above) flew to Tyneside on Friday to speak to Bruce face-to-face. The Athletic revealed this morning that they have bid an initial £15 million for Norwich left-back Jamal Lewis. Their interest in Callum Wilson, the Bournemouth and England striker, is well-established and sources now claim Newcastle have submitted an offer of £17.5 million, with another £2.5 million in add-ons. Aston Villa are reported to have had a £15 million bid for the same player rejected. Separately, Bournemouth have offered Newcastle £2.5 million plus the same again in extras to re-sign Matt Ritchie.

 

Behind the scenes, there have been flurries of frustration, as there are at every club. At Newcastle, they have historically been frequent.

 

The pace of their business can be interminable. They can identify players, approach them, set out the framework of a deal and then see the trail go cold as the chain of command grinds to a halt. Lee Charnley, the managing director, does not have a reputation for swift action but he also has Justin Barnes, Ashley’s lieutenant, and Ashley himself to answer to. It was something Benitez railed against.

 

Bruce wanted Wilson and Fraser through the door by now; the start of the new season is one week away. Others inside St James’ Park are confident both will still sign.

 

What all these players have in common is that they are Bruce’s choices. And there is something else: “they’re not a risk,” as one senior figure put it. In other words, they have experience in the Premier League and understand the demands of the division. Acclimatisation should not be necessary. With a busier schedule, less time to train and work on things, more uncertainty and less optimism, you can understand this approach.

 

Like many of his peers, Bruce is working under restrictions. Because of coronavirus and the lack of crowds in the stadium, the Newcastle head coach has around £30 million to play with — around half of what he initially anticipated. That makes things difficult. He is desperate for goals, for a proper centre-forward, and they cost big money. He is also working under a different sort of restraint, because Ashley’s Newcastle is forever riven by contradiction and complication and delay.

 

On occasions under Ashley, there has been a half-plan. Like self-sufficiency. Or signing young players, available for limited fees with the prospect of selling them on, often at the expense of team-building (Alan Pardew complained about Newcastle signing too many “rascals”). Benitez had a plan to get the club back into the top eight; much good it did him. There are also sporadic spikes of misplaced enthusiasm, like the £40 million splurged last summer on Joelinton, the non-scoring scorer.

 

Benitez had turned Joelinton down, even when Ashley offered to invest £20 million of his own money to acquire the Brazilian forward. When Bruce came in last July, he had no choice but to rubber-stamp a deal which was already done. They had better luck with Allan Saint-Maximin, whose fitness problems and character quirks had put off richer clubs, but Newcastle do not have the luxury of dabbling in that market now. This is what Bruce believes, anyway — they are on quicksand.

 

With Ashley more emotionally removed than ever, with the club still up for sale and with the takeover not wholly finished but lingering in the background, what is the big idea? Bruce wants to improve, naturally. “The aim has to be to get into the top 10 and then see what happens,” he says, and he does not want to be scrabbling about for survival, but this is not a hierarchy operating to a long-term strategy, even if you believe it ever was.

 

It is not particularly glamorous and it may not make supporters salivate with anticipation but Bruce’s first priority must be to shore things up.

 

The theory with Fraser and Wilson is that they would both get straight into Newcastle’s team and make it stronger. It is a stark, bare necessity. Bruce understands that they will not get away with another season like the last one, when they eked out results without a regular, fit goalscorer.

 

He also wants a left-back and Newcastle have made Norwich an offer for Lewis, the 22-year-old who was wanted by Liverpool earlier this summer. Bruce was understood to favour alternatives to Dimitris Giannoulis, of Greece’s PAOK, who has been scouted extensively by Newcastle and would cost in the region of £5 million. The manager wants strength and power as well as purpose in that position and is fighting his corner. “I’ll always try and break down the door to try and make Newcastle better,” he says. “If I don’t, I’m not doing my job properly.”

 

One little side-note: in January, Newcastle agreed a deal worth around £30 million for Boubakary Soumare, the Lille midfielder, who rejected the move. Perhaps that was a good thing; “if we’d gone through with it, there’d be nothing to spend now,” one source says. In any case, the players Bruce really fancied when he watched that Lille side were centre-back Gabriel, who has just joined Arsenal, and forward Victor Osimhen, who has since become Napoli’s record €70 million signing.

 

And, of course, this is the other dispiriting narrative of a draining summer when it comes to transfers. Newcastle have had not one but two lists of targets, because when the consortium fronted by Amanda Staveley had a £300 million deal to buy the club accepted by Ashley, there were frequent discussions with her football advisors about who they might sign. As random examples, they thought they had a chance with Nathan Ake and Ferran Torres, who have both since joined Manchester City.

 

Back in April and May, there was regular dialogue between Barnes and Staveley’s group, which was majority-funded by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), over contracts and transfers and everything else. That dialogue has not stopped; as Newcastle said in a statement when the consortium withdrew from the Premier League Owners’ and Directors’ Test, they are still “100 per cent committed” to the deal but time has ticked on and players have moved on.

 

Nobody now doubts that Ashley is a keen seller but Bruce cannot afford to wait; Newcastle fans have been waiting for this owner to go for well over a decade.

 

Just as he was required to do last summer, Bruce must attempt to galvanise a deflated club; then, it was Benitez going and now it is a drawn-out and unfulfilled takeover.

 

The club’s future, short-term and beyond, is uncertain but he must fight for it, whatever it is, and fight against apathy. No more gambles. No more risk.

[Guest Cheesy Beans]

Villa have upped their offer to £21m.

[Klaus]

Anyone else think it's mental the players agent saying which club he prefers, when it's more than likely we will drop out of any bidding war before Villa do? rather awkward when he's holding up the villa shirt for the first time

[Rafalove]

Could be a ploy to get Villa to up their offer.

[RodneyCisse]

When our offer is a bag of crisps and Matt Richie.

[Strawberry]

The players have the final say in this situations.

[Keggy_Keagal]

Whenever there's any speculation of us actually bidding against other clubs for a player I just get the Keegan talk in flashing through my mind. Where Keegan goes to llambias and Jimenez and says if we bid £1.25 million for Hyypia we get him. Then Hyypia calls Keegan saying "what's going on they've offered £500'000".

[Charlies]

[joeyt]

Ritchie reluctant to move away from his 65k a week contract. Good job we gave him that extended contract for no reason

[Absolute Elsewhere]

Hasn’t he had 2 serious knee injuries? Seems a big risk and that we could do better with 20m. Then again we have no scouts so it will have to be someone who Bruce knows from the premier league

[Dokko]

Hasn’t he had 2 serious knee injuries? Seems a big risk and that we could do better with 20m. Then again we have no scouts so it will have to be someone who Bruce knows from the premier league

 

Who is better for £20m and wants to come here?

[mrmojorisin75]

Hasn’t he had 2 serious knee injuries? Seems a big risk and that we could do better with 20m. Then again we have no scouts so it will have to be someone who Bruce knows from the premier league

 

Who is better for £20m and wants to come here?

 

I'd probably prefer King of the two of them.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Quite amazed we’re managing any decent signings. Wish I cared about the team.

[Menace]

The Athletic articles are always far longer than they have to be. Like someone writing their dissertation.

[joeyt]

The Athletic articles are always far longer than they have to be. Like someone writing their dissertation.

 

HTT

[Shadow Puppets]

The Athletic articles are always far longer than they have to be. Like someone writing their dissertation.

 

HTT is editor!

[Dokko]

Hasn’t he had 2 serious knee injuries? Seems a big risk and that we could do better with 20m. Then again we have no scouts so it will have to be someone who Bruce knows from the premier league

 

Who is better for £20m and wants to come here?

 

I'd probably prefer King of the two of them.

 

Manu and Tottenham want him, so doubt he’d be coming here. Watkins is interesting but a gamble. We used up that gamble with joelinton, I doubt we can afford to do it again.

[mrmojorisin75]

Hasn’t he had 2 serious knee injuries? Seems a big risk and that we could do better with 20m. Then again we have no scouts so it will have to be someone who Bruce knows from the premier league

 

Who is better for £20m and wants to come here?

 

I'd probably prefer King of the two of them.

 

Manu and Tottenham want him, so doubt he’d be coming here. Watkins is interesting but a gamble. We used up that gamble with joelinton, I doubt we can afford to do it again.

 

Wilson has scored double figures in the PL once and has had a few injuries. He's a gamble.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Not sure we can get anyone is proven to get double figures in the PL.

[Guest]

Did Wilson not say once that SJP was one of the stadiums he was looking forward to playing at most when Bournemouth first came up or was that someone else?

[sempuki]

Did Wilson not say once that SJP was one of the stadiums he was looking forward to playing at most when Bournemouth first came up or was that someone else?

Deeney I think.

[Dokko]

Hasn’t he had 2 serious knee injuries? Seems a big risk and that we could do better with 20m. Then again we have no scouts so it will have to be someone who Bruce knows from the premier league

 

Who is better for £20m and wants to come here?

 

I'd probably prefer King of the two of them.

 

Manu and Tottenham want him, so doubt he’d be coming here. Watkins is interesting but a gamble. We used up that gamble with joelinton, I doubt we can afford to do it again.

 

Wilson has scored double figures in the PL once and has had a few injuries. He's a gamble.

 

That’s the table we’re dining at. Every player we buy is going to have a black mark or two against them, or they’ll be joining a proper club. Wilson scores goals at this level, so an improvement on what we’ve got.

 

Even an injured Wilson is 3 times more productive than our record signing.

[mrmojorisin75]

Hasn’t he had 2 serious knee injuries? Seems a big risk and that we could do better with 20m. Then again we have no scouts so it will have to be someone who Bruce knows from the premier league

 

Who is better for £20m and wants to come here?

 

I'd probably prefer King of the two of them.

 

Manu and Tottenham want him, so doubt he’d be coming here. Watkins is interesting but a gamble. We used up that gamble with joelinton, I doubt we can afford to do it again.

 

Wilson has scored double figures in the PL once and has had a few injuries. He's a gamble.

 

That’s the table we’re dining at. Every player we buy is going to have a black mark or two against them, or they’ll be joining a proper club. Wilson scores goals at this level, so an improvement on what we’ve got.

 

Even an injured Wilson is 3 times more productive than our record signing.

I'm not that fussed either way personally but if Watkins was available at a similar price (doubtful) he'd be a much better signing imo, and hardly much more of a gamble.

[Guest]

Did Wilson not say once that SJP was one of the stadiums he was looking forward to playing at most when Bournemouth first came up or was that someone else?

Deeney I think.

 

Aye you’re right.

[toon25]

Watkins infinity the better bet if we’re spending £20 million on a striker. Great player