JOHNGIBSON A key window of opportunity must be taken
NEWCASTLE’S shopping list may be in order of preference but how far down the pecking order will buyer Steve Bruce have to go to sign his centre-forward of choice?
Of course a No.9 is top priority because without one United will be going out with pop guns ranged against heavy artillery.
So who could it be, remembering Mike Ashley has given Bruce so little money that Harrods is out of his financial reach?
United’s head coach would like Bournemouth’s Callum Wilson or Odsonne Edouard at Celtic but they could be a pipe dream. Certainly the latter is.
Fans have come up with their own suggestions - on live podcasts and forums I have had the names of Danny Ings, Troy Deeney and Danny Welbeck thrown at me.
Well, why would Ings come? He is a local lad playing for his local club Southampton where he scored 22 PL goals last season and so he would be looking for a more successful club than the Saints if he was to move - and they finished eight points better off than United.
Perhaps after a takeover Ings would walk here but now no way.
As for Welbeck, not for me. Why do clubs still go for permanently fading stars?
Think of Newcastle with Andy Carroll, West Ham with Jack Wilshere, Watford with Welbeck.
All England internationals who were top drawer with big clubs in their pomp but robbed of their talent by crippling injuries which severely restrict their availability.
It is amazing how many managers and owners think they are signing the original superstar instead of the current restricted performer operating from memory.
Newcastle themselves did it before Carroll when they brought back Michael Owen from Real Madrid believing they were getting the one-time Liverpool dynamo and not a player robbed of his crucial blistering early pace off the shoulder defender by injury.
Deeney is a possibility. He may not be the best but he puts himself around and though a lot of his goals are penalties he is an established top-light centre-forward who would improve on what we have - but then wouldn’t most!
What we need of course is another Malcolm Macdonald, who was a 21-year-old kid who had never played in the top division but had a proven goalscoring ability and was bursting a gut to prove himself.
In the meantime while we wait for the big signing (without a lot of hope I may add) Jeff Hendrick and Matty Longstaff have come in and no money has gone out. Yeah, yeah. Ashley will like that.
Decent players both, of course, though some might argue midfield is the least pressing of United’s of the last
problems. Now they have SIX players jostling for the two central roles but no cover at left-back and not a through-the-middle striker capable of blowing his socks off never mind scoring goals.
The half dozen to occupy the mind of Steve Bruce are Jonjo Shelvey, Isaac Hayden, Sean and Matty Longstaff, Jeff Hendrick and Dan Barlaser.
Maybe Jonjo apart it is much of a muchness with the other five - a bit of a problem because United could do with a top-notch visionary, mobile playmaker and/or a midfield goalscorer.
As for left-back Bruce needs to act quickly there too, having lost Danny Rose and Jetro Willems.
What happens in the next two and a bit weeks leading up to the big kick-off will be crucial. What is done before the October 5 deadline either life-saving or fatal.