NUFC business is winning critics over
THEY are slowly coming round to our way of thinking which is both significant and satisfying.
A couple of top-name pundits who were only too willing to give Newcastle United a slap as easy targets are now spewing out glowing words of acceptance.
Both Paul Merson and Danny Murphy have been lauding United’s endeavours in the transfer market so far this summer naming two different recruits in their top three signings made anywhere across our land.
Sky pundit and former Arsenal and England attacker Merson has hailed Nick Pope as an “absolute steal” at £10m far above the heady £51m splash champions Manchester City have made for Erling Haaland in terms of value for money.
Meanwhile Murphy, who strode the green baize 246 times for Liverpool between 1997 and 2004, has gone for Sven Botman.
Let him explain: “The Newcastle fans are really going to enjoy him. He’s somebody I’ve seen a fair bit of, he’s a footballing centre half who loves coming out with the ball and is a good passer. While very good technically Botman also has that physical presence you need as a centre half.”
Both are very encouraging assessments – eye-catching that Merson rates Pope above Haaland pound for pound while it is reassuring that Murphy has seen Botman play a few times and gives him an unqualified thumbs up. To have their two new faces this summer so nationally accepted shows the strides United have made in recruitment.
Matt Targett was originally introduced back in the January window of course alongside other pretty impressive signings like Bruno Guimaraes, Kieran Trippier and Dan
Burn. Now what we want to see is the most difficult bit of the jigsaw completed. The need for a striker is obvious and tricky.
Chris Wood filled a hole when required last season but long term is nowhere near the answer while Hugo Ekitike has proved to be an irritant more than anything else. A young footballer bursting with potential or not, the way he has played United along during the last two transfer windows has been nothing short of disgraceful. There have been plenty of reassurances that he wants to come both in January and this summer but they have eventually been followed by a rapid cooling and a stated wish that he wants to stay buried in France.
Well Bruno and Kieran and Sven bought into the Geordie dream so if Hesitant Hugo cannot bring himself to see the light then it is his problem. I don’t want to hear about him again unless it is to see him in the centre circle at SJP in black and white stripes having repented his ways and realised that his dodging and weaving could have cost him big time.
It’s not as though Ekitike has been spoilt for choice. No other club has been beating their way to his door armed with a barrowload of gold. Newcastle are the ones who have shown the faith and that ought to have been appreciated. Meanwhile the search for a winger goes on at an equal pace.
Let us hope when both he and a striker land on the Tyne, as they surely must in the next two months, the national reaction is just as fulsome as it has been for Pope and Botman.