Newcastle are lacking in fire power with the January transfer window looming.
Rafa Benitez’s Newcastle side have managed just 10 Premier League goals in 11 outings this season, with the January transfer window now less than two months away.
Newcastle are the subject of an impending takeover, and Gillespie reckons Benitez will only have money to spend if the Toon complete such a deal before January hits as current owner Mike Ashley is unlikely to back the Spanish boss.
Former Magpies winger Gillespie believes Newcastle need a signing like Les Ferdinand for £6million or Alan Shearer that cost the club £15million, stating his old side lack creativity with none of the Toon’s strikers looking prolific at the moment.
“If there is a takeover, you hope that money becomes available but if Mike Ashley is still involved in January, that’s not going to happen,” Gillespie said. “There’s no real creativity in the team. They need a creative player, someone to score more goals, in January.
“If you can get a striker in who scores 25 goals then it just about guarantees you will stay in the Premier League. I don’t really see anyone in that squad who will get into double figures, never mind 25.”
“You look at 1995 when Newcastle got Les Ferdinand in for £6 million and then they went and signed Shearer for £15 million. Everyone knows what happened after that.”
New signing Joselu has managed just two goals all season, while Aleksander Mitrovic has one and injury-prone forward Dwight Gayle is yet to score.
The Toon face Jose Mourinho’s Manchester United on Saturday afternoon at Old Trafford, one of Gillespie’s many clubs that also includes Sheffield United, Leicester City and Blackburn Rovers.
Newcastle have managed just two wins in their last 29 outings against United and the odds are firmly stacked against Benitez’s side, but they will be optimistic with United winning just one of their last four Premier League outings.
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