Former player Don Hutchison has spoken out about Newcastle United’s summer transfer window, and as a fan he is not impressed with what he sees.
Don Hutchison believes Newcastle’s summer recruiting will leave them watching the bottom of the table, rather than looking at the top 10 places in the Premier League. Hutchison spoke to the Daily Star and said Newcastle need to sharpen their act in the transfer market.
The former West Ham United, Everton and Sunderland player said: “It’s gonna be difficult [to stay up] because you look at it from the outside and then you also look at it as a fan.
“Not so much we scraped getting back into the Premier League but we made hard work of it towards the end.
“You look at the team and the squad and you think, ‘how many of them can take Newcastle forward and try and crack the top 10?’
“You’re probably looking between six and 10 – so what they need is another, at least six or seven players,” added Hutchison.
Newcastle United manager Rafael Benitez
Rafa Benitez has made four summer signings so far – Florian Lejeune, Stefan O’Connor, Joseph Yarney and Christian Atsu – at a total cost of about £15 million. This is not a massive spend. Moreover, compared to newly-promoted Huddersfield Town, Newcastle are playing catch up, judging by the completed transfers on SkySports.
Benitez will need quality above all else, and while Dan Hutchison makes a heart felt plea for Newcastle United to be more active, it is important that Benitez builds his existing players up, while not setting them unrealistic goals.
Newcastle United may not have the players to make them a top 10 team yet, but before that Benitez needs players who can make the club stable in the Premier League.
What he does have are players who have experienced the Premier League. Dwight Gayle, Matt Ritchie, Tim Krul, Rob Elliot, Jamaal Lascelles, Grant Hanley, Jack Colback, Mohamed Diamé, Jonjo Shelvey, Ayoze Perez and Aleksandar Mitrovic all have various levels of experience in the top flightl. They are just not used to winning often enough in the Premier League.
But Benitez has to believe they can be a team of winners.
Newcastle United manager Rafael Benitez speaks to players
Benitez’s job is to keep Newcastle’s winning mentality that they had in the Championship. That may need a few more quality signings, but United have a platform to build on.
It’s a trap that many northeast teams seem to fall into to believe they have to be at the top or fighting relegation. The middle ground in the Premier League is always a good target for a newly promoted team, and Benitez still has a few weeks to make some signings that give Newcastle United some momentum.
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