We need a solution for Hart – Pep

He’s too realistic for that. No, Rafa knows he can make Newcastle really competitive in the top half of the PL with what he’s got plus some very significant additions. I’m sorry to keep banging on, but Ashley makes you do that. What I want to know is where the goals are going to come from next season. Ayoze Perez isn’t an out-and-out striker. He’s a No 10, yet he was the only player to reach double figures in the last campaign. United cannot get away with that again.

The returns of Dwight Gayle and Joselu were poor in the extreme, so a new centre-forward is a MUST. Plus a back-up striker, in my opinion.

As an old No 9 goalscorer myself, I know I’m biased, but I’m also right.

With due respect across the board to all concerned, central defenders don’t release pressure, nor midfielders, nor wingers, nor even keepers. It’s goalscorers who take the cork out of the imploding bottle. Their goals ease pressure.

Take Newcastle’s FA Cup semifinal of 1974.

I’ve always said that our keeper Willie McFaul was the real super Mac that day, not me. He made an amazing number of wonderful saves against Burnley to keep it at 0-0.

However without boasting it was my two goals that got rid of the pressure on the field and the terraces, and made certain we were off to Wembley.

Football is all about goals, and United haven’t a goalscorer.

Indeed all they have at the moment is the squad that finished last season with free transfer Ki replacing the departed Mikel Merino in midfield. That’s it.

Rafa knows it isn’t good enough. Far from it. However, Ashley appears not to know it or to be indifferent.

We need United’s owner to step up to the plate. PEP Guardiola says Manchester City will try to find “a solution” for Joe Hart that sees the goalkeeper move elsewhere again.

Since Guardiola arrived at City as boss in the summer of 2016, Hart has had season-long loan spells with Torino and West Ham.

The 31-year-old, having missed out on a place in England’s World Cup squad, was included in the City squad for their pre-season tour in the United States.

When Guardiola was asked about Hart yesterday at a press conference in Chicago, he said: “Joe is our player, so in that situation he is here and we are going to try (to find) a solution for him, for the best for him. If not, he will stay here.

“He is a player who is one of the most incredible professionals I have ever met. He is training like a young guy, 18 years old. I know it is not easy for him, what happened in the last period.

“But he is with us. Tomorrow he is going to play (against Borussia Dortmund).”

Hart, who has been with City since 2006, has one year left on his contract with the club.

Also in the squad is City’s summer signing Riyad Mahrez, the winger recruited for a club-record fee of £60million from Leicester.

The Premier League champions had hoped to sign Jorginho from Napoli as well, but the midfielder moved to Chelsea last week, on the same day his boss at the Serie A club Maurizio Sarri was named as the new manager at Stamford Bridge.

Regarding Jorginho, Guardiola said: “I’m not disappointed. We tried. My advice for all players is they have to go where they want to go, and in the end it would have been a mistake for him and for us if he’d decided to come here when he wanted to go with Maurizio and Chelsea. English football receives an exceptional player. All the best for him.”

Guardiola also said of City winger Leroy Sane being left out of Germany’s World Cup squad: “Maybe this decision will make him stronger.”