Ben Foster has claimed that Newcastle United’s possible signing of Joao Pedro would ‘ruin’ Watford because teams like that have ‘unlimited funds’ and they make bids for ‘absolutely everybody’, as he told talkSPORT.
Watford were relegated to the Championship last season and their forward line has attracted a lot of interest – Emmanuel Dennis has moved to Nottingham Forest, Josh King is now in Fenerbahçe colours, whilst Ismaila Sarr was heavily linked to Aston Villa and now Pedro could join Newcastle.
In 2021, Mike Ashley ended his ill-fated spell as Newcastle owner, with the never-ending pockets of the Saudi-owned Public Investment Fund (PIF) replacing the English businessman in the St James’ Park boardroom.
During the winter transfer window, as Newcastle tried to survive relegation, Eddie Howe spent big on players and comfortably led the club to safety.
This summer, the Magpies are at it again in the transfer market, with rumours that £30 million-rated Pedro could arrive after Real Sociedad striker Alexander Isak.
Free-agent goalkeeper Foster, who recently left Watford, reacted to his former teammate possibly heading for the exit door of the Championship side and joining Newcastle.
“Watford have had a good start to the season,” said Foster. “The worry is the transfers that have been banded around, there is a risk of Sarr being sold. Pedro going to Newcastle. And that’s the problem, at the minute.
“The worry for Watford is that if they do sell these kinds of players, they have had a couple of 0-0’s and scoring goals is going to be their problem.
“This is the problem with having a team like Newcastle that have unlimited funds to splash about. They make bids for absolutely everybody and it ruins teams.
“And it will ruin Watford, it will because it would have turned their heads. It would have turned Joao Pedro’s head. It was turned Sarr’s head for Aston Villa. They will want to get that move and straight back to a Premier League club. Their wages will go up. Established Premier League teams. It’s a genuine problem for the smaller teams when a massive monster of a team with unlimited funds comes knocking.”
ISAK AND PEDRO TO JOIN HOWE’S ATTACK?
Callum Wilson has had an outstanding start to the new Premier League season, but once again, old problems are rearing its ugly head.
It seems as though he could be out of action once again with a possible hamstring issue, and if that’s the case, then at this moment in time, Howe only has Chris Wood to call upon.
But if this Isak deal goes through, added with Pedro joining from Vicarage Road, then it seriously adds flavour, depth and spark to Newcastle’s forward line.
And whilst Wilson would still be a miss, his absence would be less of a worry because there are plenty of faces willing to snatch that first-team spot away from him.
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