Let’s be upfront - a lack of fresh firepower is striking wrong chord
WE have rocked through a summer of sporting highs and lows on life’s trampoline.
Durham’s Ben Stokes launched a dazzling Bazball on Test cricket to turn England into winners again.
Wimbledon were robbed early on of the desired crowning of Queen Emma, Rory McIlroy tripped over his own shoelaces on the final few holes of the Open and the World Athletics Championships produced its first British 1,500 metres global champion since our own Steve Cram.
Yet there is only one game in town on the northerly bank of the Tyne where we are United about what matters most.
No, not Atalanta and Athletic Bilbao. That is two games and in any case they are only friendlies meant to sharpen body and mind. Nor is it the Commonwealth Games. They are Birmingham’s bag.
The only thing which really matters to Geordies and has all summer is the transfer market where we await the final pieces in the latest bid to try and build a new castle here in Newcastle.
A centre-forward who can regularly hit the bullseye is the stand-out requirement before September 1 brings the close down of any opportunity to rectify a prominent problem.
It is the one thing new owners have so far found beyond them as they have spectacularly raised hopes and expectations at a club drowning in mediocrity for so long.
They have appointed a new manager, a sports director and a chief executive.
They have signed a La Liga winner, a Brazilian international, two skyscraper central defenders and an England goalkeeper.
All top-class stuff achieved in their first year of office - but their attempts to bring goals to Newcastle has as of this moment failed spectacularly.
It is not for the want of trying. Amanda Staveley, Jamie Reuben and friends splashed out a considerable £25m to recruit Chris Wood and spent two transfer windows vainly attempting to persuade teenage striker Hugo Ekitike he could blossom outside of his native France.
They have also chased the likes of Armando Broja (Chelsea), Dominic CalvertLewin (Everton), Benjamin Sesko (RB Salzburg), Duvan Zapata ( Atalanta), Ivan Toney ( Brentford) Amine Gouiri (Nice), and Sofiane Diop (Monaco) among many others - all to no avail. They were either too dear, not quite fitting the identikit picture or reluctant to up sticks for the North East corner of England with no European football on offer.
Some may be visited again as the search narrows and so does the time span.
It may well be that instead of hard cash, paid cautiously in installments as with Nick Pope, United will revert to the loan market they have always seen as their backstop. Get out of jail card.
Wood is the current owners’ one signing out of eight (Targett taken twice) who has so far failed to live up to their high expectations and produce value for money through his goals which is hardly a bad average but nevertheless leaves the most
The brass section is addressed, the drum beat put in but a leader of the orchestra remains to be established John Gibson
important of positions unfulfilled. Callum Wilson requires urgent back -up.
Of course, the same difficulties are being found in the search for a right winger but it is a through-the-middle striker where Geordies are concentrating their desires.
The brass section has been addressed, the drumbeat put in, but a leader of the orchestra remains to be established for when Wilson is missing - as he is regularly.
This is Becher’s Brook for Yasir Al-Rumayyan, Majed al Sorour, Staveley and Reuben aided and abetted by Dan Ashworth, Eddie Howe and Steve Nickson.
It is the hardest part of any puzzle, of course. For every Alan Shearer there are two dozen imposters.
We have known so many. For those of ancient upbringing like myself there were Mike Larnach, Kit Napier and Frank Pingel but even of more recent times the young can recall Stephane Guivarc’h, Albert Luque, Xisco, Emmanuel Riviere, Facundo Ferreyra and Yoshinori Muto. I wil not go on - it is too painful!