United’s pair that got away
HE is being hailed as Newcastle United’s saviour, a golden boy in a sterile world.
Callum Wilson has an excellent strike record of seven Premier League goals in nine starts while others scrape around to little effect.
At a ground where centre-forwards are royalty, Wilson has restored some dignity and meaning to leading United’s line.
Without his considerable efforts where would Newcastle and Steve Bruce be right now? I think we know the answer.
Yet we also know he could do with some consistent help. In the best of teams, the centre stage star is backed by a decent chorus line.
Can that goals help come from record signing Joelinton who in return for £40m has scored just three Premier League goals in 47 appearances? Despite the paucity of his record, such is the desperate need for United to discover a chief support act that people are clinging to such a faint hope after he actually notched with a deflected shot at Crystal Palace.
Otherwise we have to look at Dwight Gayle and Andy Carroll, both of whom are so fragile that they have taken up semi-residency in United’s rehabilitation quarters. Both were unavailable for selection, though Carroll has forgotten what it is like to score in any case. He hasn’t done it at the top level for more than two-and-a-half years.
All of which makes the scoring performances of a couple of United rejects this early season truly galling.
Adam Armstrong and Ivan Toney are currently the top two big hitters in the Championship.
The former has 13 goals in 13 league games for Blackburn Rovers, while exPeterborough ace Toney ran up 12 in his first 14 outings for Brentford. Both were at it again over the weekend and are destined for the stars according to those who watch them regularly.
Of course Newcastle would argue that neither has proved they can cut it in the Premier League. Hey, when United signed SuperMac he had only ever played beneath the top flight but look at how he turned out: a legend.
Armstrong is 23, Toney 24. They aren’t in their pomp yet but ever since they left Tyneside they have plundered goals wherever they have played, albeit lower divisions.
Just to put more meat on their goalscoring exploits, Armstrong has not only scored more goals than any other player in the second tier this season but he has also outscored seven teams. With 25 goals in 2020, he has outgunned every other player in England.
Toney’s hit list includes 89 goals in league football so far, 104 in all firstteam matches.
Notching goals at Peterborough is
one thing but filling Aston Villa-bound Ollie Watkins’ boots at Brentford looked a big ask a division up in a team looking for promotion. However, Toney has taken it in his elegant stride.
The Magpies unloaded no fewer than three strikers within an 11-day period back in the summer of 2018.
Aleksandar Mitrovic was the first to go on July 29 followed by Armstrong on August 5 and Toney three days later.
Mitro was the headline deal with the other two slipping out in his wake, Armstrong for £1.5m to Blackburn Rovers after being regularly sent on loan and Toney to Peterborough for £500,000. Both are now rated at £30m.
All right United received a sell-on fee of £3m (30%) when Toney jumped up a rung to Brentford in the summer for £10m and Armstrong carries a similar sell-on bonus when Blackburn cash in but that is hardly the point. If either had stayed, continued to develop and ended up scoring goals in black and white, that surely would have been the best deal of all.
Toney never got a sniff at SJP while Armstrong’s first-team appearances were as a sub when he was a kid – his only top-tier start came away at Manchester United.
His potential was recognised by England at every single level from Under16s up to Under-21s, helping the Under-20s win the 2017 World Cup.
What United must dread is Toney coming back to haunt them as he surely might on December 22 when the Mags visit Brentford for their League Cup quarter-final tie. What a Christmas present that would be!
There is no doubt that Ivan the Terrible will be gunning for his old club to make the biggest of points.
It might come down to a WilsonToney shoot out but perhaps Toney and Armstrong being support to the current United goalscorer-in-chief, instead of Carroll and Gayle, would stir the Toon Army faithful a lot more.
What United must dread is Toney coming back to haunt them as he surely might on December 22 John Gibson